This sounds oddly familiar… “The problem was that the state expenses grew much faster than revenues, owing to a vastly expanded cadre of elite officeholders”

Quote from Secular Cycles. Referring to a late stage period in France circa 1780-1870.

“However, what is important is not whether the revenues declined in absolute terms but whether they declined relative to expenses. For example, Goldstone’s (1991, 2008) study of what we have called the Bourbon cycle showed that both real revenue and per capita taxation grew until the eve of the French Revolution. However, the fiscal collapse of the state was one of the clearest elements of the late eighteenth-century crisis in France. The problem was that the state

expenses grew much faster than revenues, owing to a vastly expanded cadre of elite officeholders and rising military expenses.”

- Peter Turchin & Sergey A. Nefedov. [2009]