THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TREASURY 1660-1702.

By Stephen B. Baxter.Cambridge: Harvard University Press,1957. 301 PP. $6.00.

This scholarly book is a revised and expanded version of a thesis the author submitted in 1954 for the Ph.D. degree at Cambridge University. It was written while Dr. Baxter, now at the University of Missouri, was teaching English and European history at Dartmouth. Obviously the book is intended for specialists in English institutional and administrative history. Here is no light and entertaining reading for a long winter's evening.

Despite its obvious importance, the English Treasury of the Age of the Restoration and Glorious Revolution has received but passing attention from scholars. Thanks to Dr. Baxter's exhaustive and painstaking study of both printed and manuscript sources, we now have a well-rounded and detailed picture of its structure and day-by-day operation.

For the sake of clarity a topical organization has been adopted. The opening chapter discusses the Lord Treasurers of the period. As, however, the Treasury operated more frequently under a Treasury Board than under a Treasurer, the second chapter logically deals with the composition and functions of such boards. The author next examines the interrelations of the Treasury with the King, the Council, other departments, and its own dependent boards. He then describes the operation of the Upper Exchequer and Lower Exchequer, and concludes with chapters on the Secretary and the subordinate officials of the Treasury.

On the basis of his study, Dr. Baxter finds that the years between 1660 and 1702 were decisive in the history of the Treasury, as they saw what had been little more than the personal following of a great lord transformed into a body of professional public servants. He readily admits the inefficiency and corruption of the Treasury, but presents cogent reasons for governmental toleration of such evils.

Much of the material with which the author has to deal is by its very nature dull. He, nevertheless, is able to enliven his analysis by frequent sketches of the personalities who operated the machinery of the Treasury and its agencies. The complexities of accounting, the difficulties of tax collecting, patronage, and the influence of great families are interestingly described. The author's style is simple and clear. There are, however, times when even the specialists, I venture to believe, will be perplexed by the professional jargon of the Treasury. But this is no fault of the author's, who is to be congratulated on a very substantial contribution to our knowledge of a rather neglected institution.