Absolute monarchies created permanent state finance through war and tax monopoly.

Evidence

The first governments to need regular income and secure finances were the absolute monarchies under which the nation-state came into being. Feudal princes and kings also had needed money, and even credit, but for specific purposes and temporary operations only; even in the sixteenth century, when the Fuggers put their own credit at the disposal of the state, they were not yet thinking of establishing a special state credit. The absolute monarchs at first provided for their financial needs partly through the old method of war and looting, and partly through the new device of tax monopoly. This undermined the power and ruined the fortunes of the nobility without assuaging the growing hostility of the population. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 94

Categorization

• XREF: The Fuggers’ credit and the shift to tax monopoly is the institutional prehistory of why states later cultivated court Jews as financiers. — connects to: Wars forced Britain’s tax base and government size to permanently expand. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 389
• SHARE: The Fuggers’ role as state-financiers before the concept of state credit existed is a nice detail for anyone versed in early modern financial history.