Book Description

At the heart of this book lies the contention that although the historical study of numbers may appear to be a dry scholarly exercise, it is anything but. Behind the rows of figures recorded in fiscal documents – such as ledgers, accounts, and receipts – lies an entire world: the world of the people and institutions that produced these records. These records reveal institutions such as the Ministry of Finance, the National Treasury, provincial administrations, revenue auction committees, and the Accounting Committee. They also illuminate the people behind them – political leaders, local authorities, civil servants, tax farmers, beneficiaries, debtors, and many others – as well as the expertise, political relationships, conflicts, compromises, and administrative practices some of which changed while others persisted from the pre-revolutionary period in a society transformed by revolution. Historical numbers should never be taken at face value. Rather, they should be accompanied by questions, carefully situated in their historical context, and understood as the written imprint of the world that created them. This study explores the fiscal institutions of the Provisional Administration of Greece from precisely this perspective, focusing on the work of the Accounting Committee and the records it produced. In doing so, it sheds new light on the early formation of the Greek state, exploring the interaction between pre-revolutionary legacies, new institutional arrangements, and the multiple transitions that shaped this complex process.