Paying for the Liberal State

Public finance is a major feature of the development of modern European societies, and it is at the heart of the definition of the nature of political regimes. Public finance is also a most relevant issue in the understanding of the constraints and possibilities of economic development. This book is about the rise and development of taxation systems, expenditure programs, and debt regimes in Europe from the early nineteenth century to the beginning of World War I. Its main purpose is to describe and explain the process by which financial resources were raised and managed. The volume presents studies of nine countries or empires that are considered highly representative of the widest European experience on the matter and discusses whether there are any common patterns in the way the different European states responded to the need for raising additional resources to pay for the new tasks they were performing.

José Luís Cardoso is Research Professor at the Institute of Social Science of the University of Lisbon. He was full professor of economics and history of economics at the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, and visiting professor at several Portuguese and foreign universities. He is coauthor of A History of Portuguese Economic Thought (1998) and author of several books on the Portuguese history of economics from a comparative perspective. He has published in History of Political Economy, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, History of Economic Ideas, Journal of Socio-Economics, History of European Ideas, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, Financial History Review, and Economies et Societés. His research interests also include the economic history and methodology of economics. He is the general editor of the series Classics of Portuguese Economic Thought and co-founder and co-editor of the European Journal of the History of Economic Thought.

Pedro Lains is Research Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon. He is editor of Análise Social, Secretary-General of the European Historical Economics Society, and member of the Instituto Laureano Figuerola at the Universidad Carlos III, Madrid. He was Director of Imprensa de Ciências Sociais (2004-7) and President of the Portuguese Economic and Social History Association (2003-7). He has published in Análise Social, European Review of Economic History, Explorations in Economic History, Historical Research, Open Economies Review, Research in Economic History, Revista de Historia Economica, and Scandinavian Economic History Review. His most recent books are História Económica de Portugal, 1700–2000 (2005, with A. Ferreira da Silva); Classical Trade Protectionism, 1815–1914 (2006, with J.-P. Dormois); Em Nome da Europa, 1986–2006 (2007, with M. Costa Lobo); História da Caixa Geral de Depósitos, 1910–1974 (vol. 2, 2008); Agriculture and Economic Development in Europe since 1870 (2008, with V. Pinilla); and Portugal sem Fronteiras: Os novos horizontes da economia portuguesa (2009).