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The cover of The Sinews of Power

The Sinews of Power

John Brewer

How did Britain, in a period famous for praising liberty, build a powerful state able to tax, borrow and fight?

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At a glance

Author
John Brewer

Why read it

  • You will see how heavy taxes, skilled tax collectors and a market in government debt let Britain build an empire
  • You will understand why the author calls this state an unintended consequence of political crisis, not an inevitable result of war
  • You will notice that insider trading, paper companies and stock manipulation are old tricks, already available to eighteenth century speculators

Who it is for

  • A history reader curious how Britain financed its empire
  • A student of public finance and state building
  • Someone interested in the roots of the City

Contents

  1. iii
  2. Preface
  3. Introduction
  4. Part One Before the revolution: the English state in the medieval and early modern era
  5. 1 Contexts
  6. The early centralization of the English state
  7. On the margin: the English state's absence from the great wars of Europe, c. 1450–1689
  8. Administration: the limits of venality
  9. Conclusion
  10. Part Two The contours of the fiscal military state
  11. Introduction
  12. 2 The armed forces: Patterns of military effort
  13. Military commitment
  14. The scale of operations: the case of the navy
  15. Military effort in comparative perspective
  16. Civilian government and military might
  17. Military powers and civilians
  18. The armed forces and society: professionalism, politics and the public
  19. The comparative perspective
  20. 3 Civil administration: The central offices of government
  21. The size and growth of the administration
  22. The character of administration
  23. The emergence of the professional administrator
  24. Public service and political crisis: the aftermath of the American War
  25. 4 Money, money, money: the growth in debts and taxes
  26. The extent of taxation
  27. Tax collection
  28. The pattern of fiscal imposition
  29. Fiscal administration in the field: the case of the Excise
  30. Public credit
  31. Debts and taxes: the comparative dimension
  32. Part Three Political crisis: the emergence of the fiscal-military state
  33. 5 The paradoxes of state power
  34. Domestic policy and foreign affairs
  35. The struggle over money
  36. Political parties, country ideology and the state
  37. Part Four The state, war and economy
  38. Introduction
  39. 6 The parameters of war: Policy and economy
  40. War and policy
  41. The economy
  42. 7 War and taxes: society, economy and opinion
  43. War and the economy
  44. The fiscal-military state and society
  45. The landed interest
  46. The financial interest
  47. Taxes, merchants, middlemen and consumers
  48. Part Five The state and civil society: The clash over information and interest
  49. 8 Public knowledge and private interest: the state, lobbies and the politics of information
  50. Government, information and the public
  51. Lobbies and the state
  52. Conclusion

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