Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2021
Peter Burke has suggested that the “paper state” was an invention of early modern Europe. It was a function chiefly of the desire of early modern sovereigns for information, about the people they ruled, the competitors they faced, and the events they lived through. With the widespread adoption of paper as a container for that information, the institutions of state in Europe were increasingly mediated through the circulation of paper instruments, chiefly the correspondence of the agents of state power: diplomats, governors, intendants, and other officials who embodied and projected state authority. One of the most evident measurables of the much-talked-about “rise of the modern state” was the state’s consumption of paper.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.