The Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English State 1688-1783

Other reviewers have already done a good job explaining what Brewer's book is all about. I agree with them that it is an excellent example of historical analysis. I happened to read it after reading about the Glorious Revolution in 1688: The First Modern Revolution by Steven Pincus. So, it was interesting to see the developments that occurred in England in the following century. I think Pincus would argue that the developments which Brewer describes were made possible by the Glorious Revolution and were the desired result of its winners. I would also recommend this book to students of American history. After all, the growth in power and wealth of England during the preceding century had enormous impact on the American colonies and the policies of the British government toward them. It is unfortunate that the view of most Americans of their history starts with the conflicts over taxes between Parliament and the colonies that began in the 1760s; a fuller understanding of American history is obtained by also studying the preceding 1-2 centuries of British history.

In the 17th Century England was a minor power which steered clear of European Wars. From the 1690's on England became one of the strongest military powers in Europe. It developed a strong navy and acquired an empire outside Europe. It however was able to keep its European enemies of balance by the use of subsidies to allies such as Prussia. So successful was England that it not only conquered one empire. It actually lost its American colonies, its first empire and then replaced it by conquests in India and Africa. Some years ago it was thought that the key to England's success was its growing economic power which took place hand in hand with its growth of empire. This book suggests that something else was happening. For most of the period France was a larger country and its growth rates were not that dissimilar. What was different about England was that it was able to impose very high tax burdens on its citizens with low administrative costs and it was better able to debt manage. The book suggests that the reason for this was that England's government was not a monarchy but a government that was shared between a monarch and the parliament. This firstly meant that taxation was seen as fair. Secondly there was oversight which led to tax collection being efficient. In France tax collection was done by created hereditary positions. In England it was done by salaried positions with people appointed on the basis of educational qualifications. The main devise used to collect tax was excise. There was no income tax until the time of Pitt the younger and land tax was not set at a high rate. Rather a large number of commodities such as beer soap, whine etc had a tax placed on them at the point of production. England unlike France was a country which did not have a substantial peasant class and as a result a much larger number of transactions occurred in the monetary economy and attracted tax. One of the virtues of the book is the realization of how much effort went into warfare. One English three decker cost more than the setting up of the largest factory in the country. The government whose expenditure was about 99% concerned with war was the biggest employer in the country. Not only was England able to develop the forerunner of a modern bureaucracy to collect tax it was also able to set up complex systems of procurement for its armed forces. The structure of the society also led to widespread participation by the more wealthy in the day to day running of the country. Aristocratic families would have the younger sons who were not entitled to the wealth of the family take employment. These would be in the parliament, the navy, army, church and sometimes in the administration. This in turn meant that there was a high degree of professionalism in the navy and army as it was manned by career officers. A fascinating look at the mechanics of England's rise to world power.

This book is devoted to an apparently narrow topic, the financing of the 18th century British war effort. In the course of the 18th century, Britain went from a peripheral European power to the greatest nation in Europe. During this period, Britain was almost continually at war. Explaining how Britain paid for these successful hegemonic wars provides a series of illuminating insights into 18th century Britain. At the time of the Glorious Revolution, Britain was a relatively weak power with a relatively weak monarchy, modest administrative apparatus, and a modest Army and Navy. Britain had largely been on sidelines during most of the destructive wars of 17th century continental Europe. Brewer demonstrates that apparent British weakness proved to be a blessing in disguise. Like other European states, Britain became a fiscal-military state, but later than its continental competitors. Britain was relatively unified, few internal trade barriers, and had uniform legal and tax policies. While the monarchy was relatively weak, the relatively strong parliamentary institutions meant that when Britain became committed to continental warfare and relatively high taxation, the parliamentary participation of the aristocracy and gentry gave tax policy a legitimacy largely unknown on the continent. At the same time, parliamentary debate and criticism of government acted as a relative check on corruption and promoted relatively efficient administration. The relatively late development of central administration resulted in a modern bureaucracy with relatively little venality (purchase of offices) and tax farming. Under the stress of warding off French domination of Europe, and later imperial competition with France, Britain became a relatively highly taxed society with a relatively large and efficient central bureaucracy. Brewer devotes a lot of this book to describing the nature and evolution of taxation, the financing of government debt to which it was tied, and the development of the civil service. The interestingly fruitful interactions with the development of the British economy and political life are described well. Like much else about 18th century Britain, there is the persistent combination of much that appears modern and features of a society based on deference to inherited privilege. This book is very well written and based on a careful study of a large amount of primary and secondary sources. I would say that this book provides essential insights into 18th century Britain and the trajectory of state development in Europe.

Table of Contents List of Tables and Figures Preface Introduction PART I . Before the Revolution: The English State in the Medieval and Early Modern Eras PART II . Patterns of Military Effort . Civil Administration: The Central Offices of Government . Money, Money, Money: The Growth in Debts and Taxes PART III . The Paradoxes of State Power PART IV . The Parameters of War . War and Taxes PART V . The Politics of Information: Public Knowledge and Private Interest Conclusion Notes Index

"From its modest beginnings as... a minor, infrequent almost inconsequential participant in the great wars that ravaged sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe... Britain emerged in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries as the military Wunderkind of the age.... [B]y the reign of George III Britain had become one of the heaviest weights in the balance of power in Europe [and]... was on the threshold of becoming a transcontinental power..."The above quote is the opening of War, Money, and the English State. There have been many histories of Britain's military successes in the century after the expulsion of James II Stuart--biographies of the first Duke of Marlborough, histories of the British navy, narratives of the Seven Years' War, and so forth. There have been many histories of Britain's economic growth--and even attempts to explain why Britain saw such mercantile and then industrial success in the eighteenth century. But the connection? John Brewer takes on the task of filling in the gap: how was Britain's economic success translated into massive military power?This question is especially interesting because Britain appeared to successfully mobilize its resources for eighteenth century wars in a manner very different from the continental "absolutist" powers. The apparatuses of royal secret police, lits de justice, the co-option of the middle nobility in the centralization of power and authority, and the ideology of a king "freed from the duty of observing the laws" are in large part absent from British military mobilization. It followed a different pattern--one that may have had decisive consequences for human history...John Brewer handles his topic superbly, making The Sinews of Power one of the best books I read in 1991, and making it one of the best books I read in 1995, when I re-read it.