A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

Political Change in Great Britain 405

which competing interests were struggling for primacy. Moreover, during
the eighteenth century, political life began to spill beyond the narrow con­
fines of the British political elite as ordinary people demanded a voice in
political life with increasing insistence. In Britain’s North American
colonies, a similar and in some ways parallel struggle for liberty began,
leading to the American War of Independence (1775-1782).

Expanding Central Government in Britain

Britain was justly renowned for its political preoccupation with liberty. An

essential part of eighteenth-century British identity included the victory of

Parliament during the English Civil War in the mid-seventeenth century in

defense of constitutional monarchy. Yet, as with the continental powers

France, Spain, Austria, and Russia, in non-absolutist Great Britain, too, the

powers of central government expanded, creating what has been called a

“British version of the fiscal-military state, complete with large armies and

navies, industrious administrators, high taxes and huge debts.” By the end

of the eighteenth century, the British state had perhaps ten times more rev­

enues than a century earlier. At the same time, the increasingly global

nature of trade and warfare made greater demands on the state’s adminis­

trative abilities. The growth, greater centralization, professionalization, and

efficiency of military and civilian administration permitted Britain to

replace France as the strongest power on the globe. British landed, finan­

cial, commercial, and manufacturing interests followed British military

engagements across the globe with rapt attention. Britain’s financial com­

munity, centered in what would become called “The City”—London’s

financial district—became ever more tied to and financially dependent on

Britain’s wars in Europe and abroad. The British Empire became closely

linked not only to British prosperity but also identity.

Between 1680 and 1780, Britain built and consolidated its empire. The

British army and navy tripled in size. The power and reach of the treasury

also increased, along with its capacity to raise money for foreign wars and

imperial conquest. As the economy grew rapidly, the British state raised

and efficiently collected taxes, including land taxes, excise taxes (on com­

modities), and customs taxes, which provided an increasing share of rev­

enue. The government borrowed as never before, increasing the national

debt. Britain’s bureaucracy also grew in size and complexity. Government

officials became more professional, technical expertise more important, and

government offices more clearly defined. Civil service posts offered edu­

cated men chances for social advancement.

The British government, like its continental rivals, continued to con­

front the problem of paying off the massive national debt amassed by loans

that financed dynastic and trade wars. The government spent more than

three-quarters of its expenditures on the army, navy, or paying back debts

from previous wars. In 1719, the government had awarded the South Sea