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The nature and historical evolution of an exceptional fiscal state and its possible significance for the precocious commercialization and industrialization of the British economy from Cromwell to Nelson
Author(s) -
O'BRIEN PATRICK
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.014
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1468-0289
pISSN - 0013-0117
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2010.00538.x
Subject(s) - industrialisation , constitution , mercantilism , state (computer science) , economics , commercialization , politics , narrative , order (exchange) , economy , political economy , economic system , political science , market economy , law , finance , linguistics , philosophy , algorithm , computer science
Institutions that promoted or restrained early modern economic growth were established, sustained, and often destroyed by states. Yet their economic history lacks either a fundamental theory or grounded narrative for state formation in the east or the west. This survey of a library of recent research in the conjoined histories of national taxation and finance deploys a stage theory and reciprocal comparisons to explain when, how, and why England's political elites constructed a fiscal constitution for an island state that provided the external security, internal order, and successful mercantilism to carry the economy to a plateau of possibilities for a precocious industrial revolution.