From Ad Hoc to Routine: A Case Study in Medieval Bureaucracy

This study focuses on the evolution of the office of General Receiver of Flanders from 1262 to 1372, and proposes that the emergence of such an office was a crucial factor in the formation of the modern state during the Middle Ages. As the commercial and industrial centre of Northern Europe, the county of Flanders was early in developing a financial apparatus, yet careful examination of a wide variety of Flemish financial records reveals that the Count of Flanders had no preconceived plan for the creation of a central financial office. Instead, the office was formed and sustained by an internal dynamic in which initially ad hoc actions evolved into administrative routine. Where formerly there had existed only a disparate set of functions, confined to no particular member of the Count's household, there gradually evolved a permanent official position - the General Receiver - salaried and accountable, with the management of the county's finances.