Question

The newly efficient taxation systems in many european realms of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries paid for many expenses, but by far the most expensive expenditure made by states was:

Answer 1

The answer to the question is war. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many European nations were at war with one another. War required huge expenditures in resources and finances by the countries, and even with their efficient forms of taxation, it still wasn't enough to pay for the cost of the war. One such example is France, which went bankrupt after helping to finance the French and Indian War in the Americas.