Description
This study focuses on the evolution of the office of General Receiver of Flanders from 1262 to 1372, and proposes that the emergence of such an office was a crucial factor in the formation of the modern state during the Middle Ages. As the commercial and industrial centre of Northern Europe, the county of Flanders was early in developing a financial apparatus, yet careful examination of a wide variety of Flemish financial records reveals that the Count of Flanders had no preconceived plan for the creation of a central financial office. Instead, the office was formed and sustained by an internal dynamic in which initially ad hoc actions evolved into administrative routine. Where formerly there had existed only a disparate set of functions, confined to no particular member of the Count’s household, there gradually evolved a permanent official position – the General Receiver – salaried and accountable, with the management of the county’s finances.
