“财政-军事国家”论在西方学界的发展与演变北大核心CSSCI

近代早期欧洲国家形成与军事活动之间的关系是西方学界关注的热点问题。美国学者约翰·布鲁尔提出“财政-军事国家”概念,强调行政机构扩大、财政税收增加与军事力量膨胀三者之间的关系。这一概念一经提出,很快成为分析近代欧洲国家形成与军事活动的重要框架,但它本身也存在一定的缺陷,例如,夸大了近代早期国家的能力、忽视了对财政资源的使用状况。近年来,一些西方学者试图对“财政-军事国家”概念进行补充与修正。“承包人国家”概念挑战了“公共”与“私人”的二元对立,着眼于国家将部分战争工作承包给私人,强调了私人部门在近代早期欧洲军事活动中的关键作用。“财政-军事体系”则采取了跨国的视角,关注国家、次级主权政治体和私人之间在军事活动中的互动,通过一系列“财政-军事中心”交易战争所需的人力、资金、物资、专家、服务和情报,从而勾勒出一个遍及欧洲的战争资源网络。这些研究极大地拓展了近代欧洲军事史和国家形成的视野与思路。

The Development and Evolution of the Fiscal-Military State Theory in Western Scholarship

The relationship between state formation and military activities in early modern Europe has been a focus of studies in Western scholarship. The American historian John Brewer proposed the concept of the “fiscalmilitary state”,emphasizing the connection between professional administration,sophisticated taxation,and increased military strengths among early modern European states. This concept became an important framework for historical analysis,but scholars have also pointed out some of its flaws. For example,it overplayed the capability of early modern states and paid little attention to the use of fiscal resources. Some Western scholars have recently attempted to revise the “fiscal-military state ” theory. Challenging the dichotomy between“public”and“private”sectors,they adopt the concept“contractor state”in focusing on the states’ practice of contracting their war efforts to private entrepreneurs. In doing so,they highlight the essential roles played by private sectors in the military endeavors of early modern Europe. Applying a transnational perspective,they adopt the concept of “fiscal-military system”to further study the interactions among states,semi-sovereign polities,and private actors,in which manpower,money,supplies,expertise,service,and information required were exchanged through a number of “fiscal-military hubs”,portraying a Europe-wide network for mobilizing a variety of military resources. These studies have drastically enriched the perspectives of and broadened the approaches to studying military history as well as state formation in early modern Europe.