Dissecting the sinews of power: international trade and the rise of Britain’s fiscal-military state, 1689-1823

Dal Bó, Ernesto, Hutkova, Karolina ORCID: 0000-0002-1103-1991, Leucht, Lukas and Yuchtman, Noam ORCID: 0009-0003-6501-9618 (2025) Dissecting the sinews of power: international trade and the rise of Britain’s fiscal-military state, 1689-1823. Journal of Economic History. ISSN 0022-0507

Text (dissecting-the-sinews-of-power-international-trade-and-the-rise-of-britains-fiscal-military-state-1689-1823) - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (2MB)

• Scopus publication

Abstract

We evaluate the role of taxes on overseas trade in the development of imperial Britain’s fiscal-military state. Influential work, for example, Brewer’s Sinews of Power, attributed increased fiscal capacity to the taxation of domestic, rather than traded, goods: excise revenues, coarsely associated with domestic goods, grew faster than customs revenues. We construct new historical revenue series disaggregating excise revenues from traded and domestic goods. We find substantial growth in revenue from traded goods, accounting for over half of indirect taxation around 1800. This challenges conventional wisdom, attributing the development of the British state to domestic factors. International factors mattered, too.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Management
Subjects:	J Political Science > JZ International relations H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
JEL classification:	N - Economic History > N4 - Government, War, Law, and Regulation > N43 - Europe: Pre-1913 N - Economic History > N7 - Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, Technology, and Other Services > N73 - Europe: Pre-1913 H - Public Economics > H2 - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue > H20 - General P - Economic Systems > P1 - Capitalist Systems > P16 - Political Economy
Date Deposited:	20 May 2024 11:36
Last Modified:	08 May 2025 16:21
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/123526

Actions (login required)

View Item