The Pursuit of Power. Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000

140 Chapter Four

24,

Charge your musket

25,

Draw out your scouring stick

finally to have been brought under control. Ravaging soldiers no longer
had to sustain themselves by forcibly recirculating the movable wealth
of a country. Regular, predictable taxes did the trick instead, transfer­
ring money from civilians to officials who used it to support an efficient
military force as well as themselves. It seems safe to suggest that only
the continuance of interstate rivalries prevented this Old Regime pat­
tern of society and government, which emerged after 1650, from
settling down to centuries of routine.
Incipient stabilization of European patterns of war and society was
also forwarded by another corollary of Prince Maurice’s reforms. For
standardized drill presupposed standardized weapons. Maurice him­
self found it necessary, in 1599, to require that the armies under his
command be equipped with uniform handguns. Otherwise his new
system could not be made to work. Louvois did the same for the
French army, and made soldiers look like soldiers as we know them in
the twentieth century by presiding over the development of uniforms
(which varied from regiment to regiment, however).
The short-run effect of such standardization was to reduce military
costs significantly. Even artisan suppliers could cut the price of their
product if assured of steady work manufacturing identical items in­
definitely into the future. Supply in the field was also eased when only