Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY SUMMARY
- CHAPTER II POPULATION, COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC IDEAS
- CHAPTER III LITERATURE AND THOUGHT: THE ROMANTIC TENDENCY, ROUSSEAU, KANT
- CHAPTER IV MUSIC, ART AND ARCHITECTURE
- CHAPTER V SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
- CHAPTER VI EDUCATIONAL IDEAS, PRACTICE AND INSTITUTIONS
- CHAPTER VII ARMED FORCES AND THE ART OF WAR
- CHAPTER VIII EUROPEAN RELATIONS WITH ASIA AND AFRICA
- CHAPTER IX EUROPEAN DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS, 1763–90
- CHAPTER X THE HABSBURG POSSESSIONS AND GERMANY
- CHAPTER XI RUSSIA
- CHAPTER XII THE PARTITIONS OF POLAND
- CHAPTER XIII IBERIAN STATES AND THE ITALIAN STATES, 1763-1793
- CHAPTER XIV THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN COMMUNITIES OUTSIDE BRITISH RULE
- CHAPTER XV SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ERA
- CHAPTER XVI THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONO, 1763–93: CONSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS
- CHAPTER XVII THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN ITS IMPERIAL, STRATEGIC AND DIPLOMATIC ASPECTS
- CHAPTER XVIII AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE IN ITS AMERICAN CONTEXT, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS, WESTERN EXPANSION
- CHAPTER XIX THE BEGINNINGS OF REFORM IN GREAT BRITAIN, IMPERIAL PROBLEMS, POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION, ECONOMIC GROWTH
- CHAPTER XX FRENCH ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC FINANCE IN THEIR EUROPEAN SETTING
- CHAPTER XXI THE BREAKDOWN OF THE OLD RÉGIME IN FRANCE
- CHAPTER XXII THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
- CHAPTER XXIII THE OUTBREAK OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
- CHAPTER XXIV REFORM AND REVOLUTION IN FRANCE: OCTOBER 1789–FEBRUARY 1793
- APPENDIX Estimated growth of population in Europe and North America in the eighteenth century
- References
CHAPTER XX - FRENCH ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC FINANCE IN THEIR EUROPEAN SETTING
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY SUMMARY
- CHAPTER II POPULATION, COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC IDEAS
- CHAPTER III LITERATURE AND THOUGHT: THE ROMANTIC TENDENCY, ROUSSEAU, KANT
- CHAPTER IV MUSIC, ART AND ARCHITECTURE
- CHAPTER V SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
- CHAPTER VI EDUCATIONAL IDEAS, PRACTICE AND INSTITUTIONS
- CHAPTER VII ARMED FORCES AND THE ART OF WAR
- CHAPTER VIII EUROPEAN RELATIONS WITH ASIA AND AFRICA
- CHAPTER IX EUROPEAN DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS, 1763–90
- CHAPTER X THE HABSBURG POSSESSIONS AND GERMANY
- CHAPTER XI RUSSIA
- CHAPTER XII THE PARTITIONS OF POLAND
- CHAPTER XIII IBERIAN STATES AND THE ITALIAN STATES, 1763-1793
- CHAPTER XIV THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN COMMUNITIES OUTSIDE BRITISH RULE
- CHAPTER XV SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ERA
- CHAPTER XVI THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONO, 1763–93: CONSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS
- CHAPTER XVII THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN ITS IMPERIAL, STRATEGIC AND DIPLOMATIC ASPECTS
- CHAPTER XVIII AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE IN ITS AMERICAN CONTEXT, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS, WESTERN EXPANSION
- CHAPTER XIX THE BEGINNINGS OF REFORM IN GREAT BRITAIN, IMPERIAL PROBLEMS, POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION, ECONOMIC GROWTH
- CHAPTER XX FRENCH ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC FINANCE IN THEIR EUROPEAN SETTING
- CHAPTER XXI THE BREAKDOWN OF THE OLD RÉGIME IN FRANCE
- CHAPTER XXII THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
- CHAPTER XXIII THE OUTBREAK OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
- CHAPTER XXIV REFORM AND REVOLUTION IN FRANCE: OCTOBER 1789–FEBRUARY 1793
- APPENDIX Estimated growth of population in Europe and North America in the eighteenth century
- References
Summary
During the late eighteenth century there was a movement common to many European countries towards powerful and efficient central government. This movement was the counterpart of the more spectacular endeavour to increase the liberty of the individual. Thus, the era of the American Declaration of Independence, of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, the charter of economic liberalism, was also the time when the modern state began to consolidate its forces. Just as the thinkers of the Enlightenment attempted to define the nature of the state as well as the nature of man, so their ideas were reflected during the ensuing years in a clearer identity of both. The growth of central authority and individual liberty hand in hand is shown by events such as the destruction of Jesuit power in Spain, Portugal, Austria and France, and the destruction of the power of the church and the nobility in the French Revolution. In France and England, the great social, political and constitutional changes which eventually gave the middle classes control over the central government tended to obscure the growth of bureaucratic power; and the liberal tradition has sometimes led to the belief that during the great age of revolution the state increased in strength only in countries where ‘enlightened despots’ flourished: the Prussia of Frederick II, the Austria of Joseph II, the Spain of Charles III, and the rest. But Henri Pirenne, by his definition of enlightened despotism as ‘la rationalisation de l'État’, diverted attention from the enlightened despots themselves to the nature of their work of reforming the state, which was remarkably similar in its intentions and results to contemporary reform programmes being carried out in England and France.
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- Information
- The New Cambridge Modern History , pp. 565 - 591Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1965
References
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