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Civil War Finance: Lessons for Today

INTRODUCTION Randolph Bourne was a young Progressive radical during World War I.1 Viewing the grotesque excesses of Woodrow Wilson’s wartime administration, he wrote an essay in which he coined the maxim: “War is the health of the State.”2 The essay was only published posthumously, because Bourne himself became a victim of the war-induced flu epidemic.3 Economists and historians have confirmed the validity of Bourne’s maxim in two major respects. First, during war itself, there is a surge in government power, as it increases in scope, size, and intrusiveness.4 The war brings about higher taxes, wider conscription, more regulation of the economy, and suppression of civil liberties.5 Governments tend to spend more on war and preparing for war than on anything else.6 Indeed, prior to the advent of the modern welfare State in the twentieth century, governments usually spent more on war and preparing for war than all other things combined.7 The State was essentially a war making institution that did a few other things on the side.8