{"id":476,"date":"2026-01-24T07:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/?p=476"},"modified":"2026-01-27T12:04:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:04:54","slug":"%c2%a7-2-2-los-beneficios-de-la-guerra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/2026\/01\/24\/%c2%a7-2-2-los-beneficios-de-la-guerra\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a7 2.2 The Benefits of War"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from almost ruining the French economy, Napoleon\u2014the first truly modern tyrant (1.16<\/a>)\u2014gave an enormous advantage to the Great Britain of George III and the Regency of the Prince of Wales. In the words of Alasdair Gray:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

THE BENEFITS OF WAR\u2014 \u201cNapoleon gave Britain our advantage as an industrial nation. To fight him all around Europe the government introduced heavier taxes which chiefly oppressed the poor, and used much of this money to buy continual supplies of uniforms, boots, guns and shipping. All kinds of factories were built. Many able-bodied men were abroad with the army but new machines made it possible to run factories with the cheap labour of women and children. This enhanced the profits so much that we could invest in trains, iron-clads and a big new empire. We owe a lot to Boney.\u201d<\/em>1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Driven by the Napoleonic Wars, British industry grew at an accelerating pace making possible new technical advancements in many fields. Among these, the one that concerns our subject is the invention of steam printing which increased the production capacity of printed material fivefold. This development brought about the rise of the popular fashionable novels, which depicted the elegance and glitter of the lives of the upper-class and the aristocracy. It is worth noting that an essential part of genealogy\u2019s function\u2014to legitimize by transferring from the private to the public sphere (1.12<\/a>)\u2014was inherited by this genre of novels: it helped legitimize the power of the ruling class through appearance. Its characters describe a new intersection of sovereignty, in its stories the ruling class starts to be popularized as a fiction. The fashionable novels started depicting a world that lied halfway between fiction and reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, if steam printing was the determining technical factor in the appearance of this new literary genre, it was a much bigger social change that determined its themes: the Regency saw \u201ca decomposition of the previous hierarchical order that led to the need to establish a new type of aristocracy based on taste and appearances.\u201d2<\/a><\/sup> As the secularizing waves of the Revolution fell against the West, the only refuge of sovereignty and aristocracy lied in its manners. The gold of the idols was already a mere varnish (1.17<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Prince of Wales was at the head of this trend. Known as the First Gentleman of England on account of his elegance, apparently the regent was \u201cprouder of the distinction of his manners that of his lofty rank.\u201d3<\/a><\/sup> Accordingly, he used to reward handsomely his most distinguished and elegant officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n
  1. Alasdair Gray, Poor Things<\/em>, 157. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. Carlos Primo and Leticia Garc\u00eda, \u201cUna apolog\u00eda del dandismo,\u201d in Prodigiosos Mirmidones<\/em>, 24.\u00a0 \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  3. Jules Barbey d\u2019Aurevilly, Of Dandyism and of George Brummell<\/em>, 51. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Adem\u00e1s de casi arruinar la econom\u00eda francesa, Napole\u00f3n \u2014el primer tirano verdaderamente moderno (1.16)\u2014, le dio una enorme ventaja a la Gran Breta\u00f1a de Jorge III y la regencia del pr\u00edncipe de Gales. En palabras de Alasdair Gray: LOS BENEFICIOS DE LA GUERRA: \u201cNapole\u00f3n le dio a Gran Breta\u00f1a la ocasi\u00f3n de convertirse en una […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274836558,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"Alasdair Gray, Pobres criaturas<\/em>, 180.\",\"id\":\"482a144b-2469-40c0-adf4-4069c546b7d4\"},{\"content\":\"Carlos Primo y Leticia Garc\u00eda, \u201cUna apolog\u00eda del dandismo\u201d, en Prodigiosos Mirmidones<\/em>, 24.\u00a0\",\"id\":\"359e4f6e-b5c7-4c80-b0b4-7243690dff60\"},{\"content\":\"Jules Barbey d\u2019Aurevilly, \u201cDel dandismo y de George Brummell\u201d, en Prodigiosos Mirmidones<\/em>, 126.\",\"id\":\"b77f2b94-630c-4594-82b8-13384e715482\"}]","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[786109115],"tags":[786109124,786109127,786109122,786109123,786109094,786109092,786109125,786109126,786109128,786109129,786109117],"class_list":["post-476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitulo-2","tag-alasdair-gray","tag-fashionable-novels","tag-george-iii","tag-jorge-iii","tag-napoleon-3","tag-napoleon","tag-pobres-criaturas","tag-poor-things","tag-prince-of-wales","tag-principe-de-gales","tag-regency"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYHfz-7G","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274836558"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":573,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions\/573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/locusterribilis.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}