A large literature has examined the ``rise of the state'' in early modern Europe, focusing on the increase in the capacity of states due to war. However, state institutions were increasing not only in size but also in their \textit{quality}, through the creation of ``modern'' or ``Weberian'' bureaucracies. To illustrate these distinct processes, our project examines the state in early modern Britain, often cited as the ideal type of a bureaucratic transformation. To do so, we are building a dataset of every central government employee in Britain between 1660 and 1830, capturing not just their numbers but eight measures of bureaucratic rationalization: structured career progression, functional specialization, renumeration through salaries rather than user fees, centralized control over salaries, higher salaries, increased time in office, the delinking of bureaucratic and political careers, and reduced nepotism. Consistent with the existing literature, we find that increases in the number of bureaucrats occur during war. [Visual inspection shows a mixed relationship between preliminary measures of bureaucratic quality and a similarly mixed relationship between quality and political change.]