State formation and social change in early modern England: A problem stated and approaches suggested∗

In this paper I seek to do three things. First, I hope to isolate a number of conceptual problems which historians have in dealing with 'the state'. In seeking to resolve these conceptual problems, I propose a concentration on the process of state formation, as distinct from a concentration on the state as an entity. Second, I hope to suggest ways in which this process might be examined empirically. Finally, and fairly briefly, I hope to demonstrate the ways in which this project might be of value to the field of seventeenth-century studies as a whole.