Violence, Institutional Shocks and Development The Economic Consequences of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815) in Germany

The wars of 1792-1815 constituted the last and biggest military conflict in pre-modern Europe. This essay reviews the available evidence concerning their economic impact on the German lands. Given the low level of fiscal development there, taxes and capital markets were of limited relevance for the mobilization of resources for war-related purposes relative to requisitions and exactions on the spot. Adverse effects of the wars on the aggregate economy in the short run were limited, and post-war reconstruction was achieved within a half-decade. The 1810s also saw the transition from a Malthusian disequilibrium to a post-Malthusian regime, which raises the question of whether the wars produced institutional shocks favouring economic development in the long run. The available evidence supports the view that links the increase of the state size, which resulted from the wars, with Smithian growth.