This article examines John Bruce's vision of the bureaucratic archives of the British state and empire at the end of the eighteenth century. As Historiographer to the East India Company and Keeper of State Papers in the 1790s and early 1800s, Bruce used the archives of corporate and state government as sources of bureaucratic knowledge to justify and plan imperial and domestic policy. In this way, Bruce deployed a strategy of governance by the authority of "state papers," rooted in early modern political practice, across imperial and domestic government. The demise of Bruce's influence signaled the waning of this role of the archive as a technology of governance in Britain during the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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动员帝国的“国家文件”：约翰布鲁斯、早期现代性和英国官僚档案

本文考察了约翰·布鲁斯 (John Bruce) 对 18 世纪末不列颠国家和帝国官僚档案的看法。作为东印度公司的历史学家和 1790 年代和 1800 年代初期的国家文件保管员，布鲁斯使用公司和州政府的档案作为官僚知识的来源来证明和计划帝国和国内政策。通过这种方式，布鲁斯通过“国家文件”的权威部署了一种治理策略，这种策略植根于早期现代政治实践，跨越帝国和国内政府。布鲁斯影响力的消亡标志着档案在 19 世纪英国作为一种治理技术的作用正在减弱。[作者摘要]