Root. 1989. Tying the King's hands: Credible commitments and royal fiscal policy during the old regime. Rationality and Society 1 (October): 240-258..
Conclusion: "The irony of absolutism":
- "in sum, because the king claimed full discretion, he had less real power" (253). He had to pay higher interest on loans because he claimed to be above the law
- So he supported the growth and strengthening of intermediaries that could act as bankers for the king, taking loans from the public to make loans to the king. This included the traditional corporations: village communities, guilds, provincial estates.
- Later, though, the many concessions granted to these groups made tax collection difficult. The king wanted to dissolve these corporations, but found that he couldn't. (He didn't have the resources to absorb their debt, thus risked financial crisis by just absorbing them and leaving their debts to the public unpaid).
- So the corporations had gained the power to "impose their terms on the crown and to block efforts to overhaul the fiscal system" (253)