Foreign military labour in early modern Europe
August 2024
| Chapter
| Officers, Entrepreneurs, Career Migrants, and Diplomats: Military Entrepreneurs in the Early Modern Era
This chapter presents preliminary findings from the “European Fiscal-Military System 1530-1870” project which investigates how the transfer of military labour, along with other war-making assets, was an important factor in the emergence of a European order based on territorially bounded sovereign states. It argues that there was no free market for force. Men were rarely able or willing to serve any power, while prospective employers were also discerning in whom they recruited. Access to manpower was mediated through contractors upon whom contractees depended upon to organise and supply the bulk of foreign troops. Geography, strategy, dynastic, and religious considerations all further influenced choices, as did perceptions of martial reputation, creditworthiness, and the likelihood of achieving ambitions. There was a pronounced tendency for clustering of contractees and contractors along established patterns whereby men from certain areas predominately served in the same armies. However, these patterns were not universal across all contractual forms and there were important variations between the employers of foreign soldiers. These patterns were not replicated in the service of foreign fighters as it emerged from the 1820s and which reflected the progressive restructuring of states and war-making along national lines.