ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Historians overwhelmingly concur that the development of bureaucratic administration underlay the rise of early modern Eurasian states and empires and ultimately the modern state with its accoutrements and processes. In contrast to the tiny, royal household administrations so characteristic of the medieval epoch, the burgeoning bureaucratic administrations of the sixteenth century and after became powerful agents of change in numerous social arenas. Early modern bureaucratic administrations categorized and regulated estates; mobilized and extracted resources, especially for the military; and in other ways, provided monarchs with important tools to extend power at home and abroad.
