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...

Whilst many books on the European economy have focused on the analysis of its industrial sectors, this book draws attention to the often ignored contribution made by the development of European agriculture over the past two centuries. In doing so, the authors adopt a revisionist perspective on the subject, addressing the lack of coherent study of the agricultural sector and reassessing old theories about the links between agricultural and economic development. In focusing on those countries which by 1870 still had a large agricultural sector, namely, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, The...

This book offers a fascinating exploration of the evolution of the Portuguese economy over the course of eight centuries, from the foundation of the kingdom in 1143, when political boundaries began to take shape in the midst of the Christian Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula, and the formation of an empire, to the integration of the nation into the European Communities and the Economic and Monetary Union. Through six chapters, the authors provide a vibrant history of Portugal's past with a focus ranging from the medieval economy and the age of globalization, to war and recovery, the...