The Trials of War
The Trials of War
This chapter asks how the ill-effects of war and princes' efforts to mitigate them affected their relationship with their subjects. Attempts to discipline soldiers often failed to prevent them from terrorizing civilians, while wartime disturbance bred crime more generally. Both problems were more severe in the Netherlands than in England, as was the disruption to trade and agriculture caused by war. However, they did not always alienate subjects from rulers, for the rulers' case that war was to be blamed on the enemy seems to have been widely accepted. Those engaged in the arms trade benefited from war, but they were not a significant interest group. Governments took significant powers over food supply, transport, trade with the enemy, and fishing in contested waters, which increased their ability to direct economic life, yet in so doing compromised with wealthy groups to secure funding for their wars.
Keywords: agriculture, arms trade, crime, food supply, fishing, soldiers, trade, transport
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .