The problem of military recruitment at the end of the 18th century and the question of building the state and the nation

Abstract

Using the documentation that was produced by the General Superintendent of Police it is possible to put together an expressive picture of the difficulties that were encountered at the end of the 18^th century in carrying out military recruitment. The great resistance that was met brought into play the various instances of local and «professional» power, influencing the behaviour of the circuit judges and the inspectors of justice. By giving this task to the superintendent, in the period between 1796 and 1803, the government itself copper-fastened the impossibility of this task being fulfilled by the legally competent authorities. The main basis for these difficulties, however, lay in the system of privileges which allowed the «legal» escape by military contribution, and which correspond to the recognition by the government that a significant section of the population were not available. As it was impossible to directly revoke these exemptions, the superintendent designed its indirect revocation which would in practice translate into the transferral of the duties of military recruitment to householders of a certain level of wealth, that is, by a «contractual» and «private» solution to fill the ranks. The administration, by implication, would thereby withdraw from management of the population and would recognise «paternal» processes as being the only ones capable of so doing. Faced with such a practically disastrous panorama, it was unavoidable that there would be reforms which would go towards the construction of the «nation» as a «moral» reserve and basis capable of supplying the state with the means to overcome the impasses that «nationalisation» had led to. This is diagnosed, from a re-appropriation of the image of the European cultural reserve which is that of the Ancients, and of its militia, as being a break in communication between the intentions of the governed and the «energies» of those who govern.