"The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw many ambitious European rulers develop permanent armies and navies. War and the State in Early Modern Europe examines this military change as a central part of the political, social and economic transformation of early modern Europe." This study exposes the economic structures needed to support permanent military organisations across Europe. Large armed forces could not develop successfully without various interest groups who needed protection and were willing to pay for it. Arguing that early fiscal-military states were in fact protection-selling enterprises, the author focuses on Spain, the Dutch Republic and Sweden; the role of local elites; and the political and organisational aspects of this new military development. War and the State in Early Modern Europe offers an insight into the conditions surrounding the growth of military organisation in Europe and will appeal to European and military historians alike.