Introduction -- The importance of warfare -- Europe's urban rise -- Evaluating the safe harbor effect -- Evaluating the warfare-to-wealth effect -- Warfare to wealth in comparative perspective -- Epilogue

We examine the relationships between warfare, taxation, and political change in the context of the political unification of the Italian peninsula. Using a comprehensive new database, we argue that external and internal threat environments had significant implications for the demand for military...

We analyze a general commitment problem inherent to the formation of tax states: How can a state credibly promise to use tax revenues for pre-specified purposes? At the start of the early modern period in Europe, monarchs controlled expenditure. Where parliaments controlled taxation, the result...