ABSTRACT
All the European states can be considered fiscal-military states if this term is used to mean states that were obliged to develop new tax and revenue collection systems in order to meet the cost of warfare. This chapter illustrates the specific development of the fiscal-military state in the politically and economically important countries of early modern Europe: Spain, France, the Dutch Republic, England, Prussia and Austria. It shows that revenues, fiscal potential and the perceived reliability of each individual country were influenced by several of the correlated factors. The factors include the total tax base, the availability of additional resources from crown funds, possession of mines, the level of commercial and urban development, the level of political consensus, and central government’s ability to reduce fiscal privileges. During the entire 80 years of the war, taxation remained the most important source of finance, and foreign loans were used only at the outset.
