Peter Dickson was a pioneer in fiscal history, who made transformative contributions to our understanding of two quite separate major European countries in the 18th century. He initiated the ongoing discussion of the rise of the fiscal state in international affairs and its role in funding resources for defence, imperial aggression and foreign trade. His work on Great Britain is central to study of the establishment and evolution of the national debt and the development of a banking system. His analysis of Austrian state finances was combined with a fundamental reassessment of government and society under Empress Maria Theresia. In Oxford he made his mark especially as a founding fellow of St Catherine’s College.
Posted to Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, 21