While many historical studies have shown that the funding of international warfare had a profound impact on institutional and economic developments, less work has been done on the ways in which European polities responded to the "War within" that pitted those who benefited from war expenditure against those who paid for the military effort. A series of case studies on Spain, Venice, the Dutch provinces, the Austrian Low Countries, Prussia, France, Britain and Sweden will analyse some of the conflicts that arose when the needs and methods of financing war met social demands for morality and accountability. These are fundamental questions that still resonate and have relevance today as governments and societies try to move on from the Global Financial Crisis.

Argument

This international conference funded by the Economic and Social Research Council(ESRC) and the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), and with support from the Centre for Economic History (CeCH, University of Reading) and the Centre d’Histoire Espaces et Cultures (CHEC, Université de Clermont-Ferrand), will bring together, at the University of Reading (3-4 December), 15 specialists from 8 countries to examine some of the societal challenges brought about by the costs of the long wars of attrition that engulfed Europe between the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815).

While many historical studies have shown that the funding of international warfare had a profound impact on institutional and economic developments, less work has been done on the ways in which European polities responded to the ‘War within’ that pitted those who benefited from war expenditure against those who paid for the military effort. A series of case studies on Spain, Venice, the Dutch provinces, the Austrian Low Countries, Prussia, France, Britain and Sweden will analyse some of the conflicts that arose when the needs and methods of financing war met social demands for morality and accountability. These are fundamental questions that still resonate and have relevance today as governments and societies try to move on from the Global Financial Crisis.

Programme

Day 1: Thursday 3 December 2015

9.30-10.00: Registration

10.00-10.15: Welcome and Introduction

10.15-11.30: Session 1

•  Dr Erik Thomson. The University of Manitoba, Canada, Accounting for power: Swedish and French approaches to the harnessing of mercantile interest during the Thirty Years War
•  Dr Francisco Gil Martínez & Prof Francisco Andújar Castillo, Universidad de Almería, Spain, The fraud encouraged by the state: pardons and “composiciones” in the seventeenth century

11.30-12.00: Break

12.00-13. 15: Session 2

•  Dr Brodie Waddell. Birkbeck College, University of London, UK, ‘The common subject of all conversation: popular responses to the impact of war on England, 1689-1697’
•  Dr David Celetti. University of Padua, Italy, From Candia to Morea (1645-1699). Financial crisis, frauds, controls, and moral discourses in the Republic of Venice

13.15-14.00: Lunch

14.00-15.15: Session 3.

•  Dr Aaron Graham, The University of Oxford, UK, Warfare, Finance and the Morality of Corruption in Britain, 1689-1815
•  Dr Robert Bernsee. University of Heidelberg, Germany, For the Good of the Prince. Government and Corruption in Germany during the Long 18th Century

15.15-15.45: Break

15.45-17.00: Session 4.

•  Prof. Agustín González Enciso, Universidad de Navarra, Spain, Spanish eighteenth century contractors: from particular interest to particular state privileges
•  Prof. Stephen Conway, University College London, UK, ’Economical reform’ revisited: Another look at the battle over British public finance, 1779-1783

17.30-18.30: Guest lecture

• Prof. Larry Neal, University of Illinois, USA, The emergence of modern finance, 1789 -1830: a tale of three revolutions.

Day 2: Friday 4 December 2015

9.30-10.00. Registration

10.00-11.15: Session 5

•  Dr Francois R. Velde, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, USA, The Talhouët affair: graft and punishment in 1723 France
•  Prof. Anne Dubet, Université Blaise Pascal Clermont-Ferrand, France, Moral standards and negotiation: the Spanish monarchy and its financiers in the first half of the 18^th century

11.15-11.45: Break

11.45-13.00: Session 6

•  Prof. Julian Hoppit, University College London, UK, British government views of smuggling in the eighteenth century
•  Prof. Marie-Laure Legay, Université Lille 3, France, The question of Counterfeit Money in the Southern Netherlands, 1710-1730

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.00-16.00: Session 7

•  Dr Patrik Winton, Uppsala University, Sweden,  War, resources and politics: Sweden 1740-1762.
•  Prof. Mark Knights, University of Warwick, UK, Offices for sale: Military venality in its wider context
•  Dr Toon Kerkhoff, Institute of Public Administration, Leiden University, the Netherlands, Corruption, state formation and institutional reform in the early modern Netherlands

16.00-16.30: Conclusion

Organisers

• Anne Dubet (Université Blaise Pascal Clermont-Ferrand)
• Joel Felix (University of Reading)

In order to attend please register at:http://registration.venuereading.com/warwithin

Queries: Joel Felix j.m.felix@reading.ac.uk and cc.a.h.harvey@reading.ac.uk

All practical details will be sent in due time to delegates and members of the public who have registered