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The Early Modern Economy

| Discussion Topics | Documents | Reading |


Discussion Topics and Essay Questions

a) The early modern economy
  • How should we describe the economic system at the end of the Middle Ages?
  • What were the most significant changes in the European economy between 1500 and 1750?
  • Did the early modern period witness the beginning of a ‘global economy’?
  • What was the role of the state in the development of the early modern economy?
b) Material culture
  • To what extent was early modern Europe a 'consumer society'?
  • How did the material culture of social groups differ?

Documents

**NOTE: Some eresources are accessible only on-campus or via off-campus proxies or the athens service**

Texts

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The Economy
Material Culture
Material Culture

  Secondary Literature

Selected Key Texts: Early Modern Economy

Selected Key Texts: Material Culture

Further reading

a) The early modern European economy
  • R. Bonney (ed.), Economic Systems and State Finance (1995)
  • “ (ed.), The Rise of the Fiscal State in Europe (1999)
  • Robert Brenner, 'Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe', Past & Present, 70 (1976) (see also, Aston and Philpin in 'Key texts').
  • J. De Vries, European Urbanization 1500-1800 (1984)
  • Di Vittorio, Antonio , ed., An Economic History of Europe: From Expansion to Development (London and New York, 2006), Parts 1-4.
  • R.S. Duplessis, Transitions to Capitalism in Early Modern Europe (1997)
  • S.R. Epstein, Freedom and Growth: The Rise of States and Markets in Europe, 1300-1750 (2000) (ebook)
  • Epstein, S. R., and M. Prak, eds, Guilds, Innovation and the European Economy, 1400-1800 (Cambridge, 2008) (ebook)
  • K. Honeyman and J. Goodman, 'Women's Work, Gender Conflict, and Labour Markets in Europe, 1500-1900', Economic History Review, 44 (1991), 608-28
  • M. Howell, Commerce Before Capitalism in Europe 1300-1600 (2010)
  • H. Kamen, The Iron Century: Social Change in Europe (1971)
  • P. Kriedte et al, Industrialization before Industrialization: Rural Industry in the Genesis of Capitalism (1981)
  • P. Kriedte, Peasants, Landlords and Merchant Capitalists, 1500-1800 (1983)
  • H.A. Miskimin, The Economy of Later Renaissance Europe (1977) (ebook), chs. 4-5
  • Persson, K. G., An Economic History of Europe: Knowledge, Institutions and Growth, 600 to the Present (Cambridge; New York, 2010).
  • M. M. Postan,Cambridge Economic History of Europe (multiple vols., 1966-1989), esp. Vol. 4: The Economy of Expanding Europe in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1967) and Vol. 5 The Economic Organization of Early Modern Europe (1977).
  • Van Cauwenberghe, H. G., ed., Money, Coins and Commerce: Essays in the Monetary History of Asia and Europe (from Antiquity to Modern Times) (Leuven, 1991).
b) European economies
c) The extra-European world and global economy
d) Material culture


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