Paying for the Liberal State

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).

• Introduction José Luís Cardoso and Pedro Lains; 1. Creating legitimacy: administering taxation in Britain, 1815–1914 Martin Daunton; 2. The development of public finance in the Netherlands, 1815–1914 Jan Luiten Van Zanden and Arthur Van Riel; 3. The apogee and fall of the French Rentier Regime, 1801–1914 Richard Bonney; 4. The evolution of public finances in nineteenth-century Germany Mark Spoerer; 5. Public finance in Austria-Hungary, 1820–1913 Michael Pammer; 6. The rise of the fiscal state in Sweden 1800–1914 Lennart Schön; 7. Always on the brink: Piedmont and Italy Giovanni Federico; 8. Public finance and the rise of the liberal state in Spain, 1808–1914 Francisco Comin; 9. Public finance in Portugal, 1796–1910 José Luís Cardoso and Pedro Lains; 10. The monetary, fiscal, and political architecture of Europe, 1815–1914 Larry Neal.

'Historians have long puzzled over the fact that taxes, government spending, and government debt rose as a share of the economy at the same time that institutions became more liberal in the sense of allowing, and lightly taxing, freer markets. This well-structured team study reconciles global patterns with the diversity of eight countries' individual trajectories across the long nineteenth century. Yes, successful development did follow a general evolution in fiscal structure, yet the national departures from the global path prove as instructive as the average tendency itself.' Peter H. Lindert, University of California, Davis