Taxation is accepted as a fact of modern life, despite recurring political conflict over the nature and direction of fiscal policies. Most financiers regard obligations issued by the state as a safe investment option. Neither taxation nor state obligations were taken for granted during much of the history of public finance, however, at least not before the early 1800s. The ‘tax state’ developed in fits and starts, driven by the exigencies of warfare, which provided the main rationale for raising state income. Although wartime fiscal innovations eventually facilitated the rise of an efficient military state, the options available for implementing such improvements and preferences for specific fiscal or financial instruments varied greatly across early modern states. Focusing on the ‘long’ eighteenth century, this introduction presents a framework for assessing these differences and introduces the other articles in this special issue.

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引言：收入最大化，政治成本最小化——近代早期公共财政史上的挑战

尽管在财政政策的性质和方向上反复出现政治冲突，但税收被接受为现代生活的事实。大多数金融家将国家发行的债务视为一种安全的投资选择。然而，在公共财政历史的大部分时间里，税收和国家义务都不是理所当然的，至少在 1800 年代初之前是这样。在战争紧急情况的驱动下，“税收国家”断断续续地发展起来，这为提高国家收入提供了主要理由。尽管战时财政创新最终促进了高效军事国家的兴起，但在早期现代国家中，可用于实施此类改进和对特定财政或金融工具的偏好的选择差异很大。着眼于“漫长”的十八世纪，