Book excerpt: Although Portugal was one of the first European states with stable borders, the process of the making of a Portuguese fiscal state still remains to be studied in detail. This volume brings together studies on the development of the Portuguese fiscal state within a comparative perspective in relation to other kingdoms across Europe, such as Castile and Aragon, England, Tuscany, the Papal States, Holland and France, in order to bring Portugal into the broader and comparative international debate about the development of the fiscal state. As a very distinctive case, Portugal remains understudied and underrepresented in the broader literature on the development of fiscal states. There are relatively few studies on the building of a fiscal state in Portugal that are accessible to an international audience. This book will make a fundamental contribution to this field, which is still full of untapped potential. It will combine the latest theory and comparative context with a detailed reconstruction of Portuguese state finance, taking a longer chronological frame that follows its development from the medieval through to the early modern period. It will also make the latest research from Portuguese scholars available to a wider, international audience, and will be of particular interest to researchers and students of financial and economic history. ​