Early Modern Capitalism: Economic and Social Change in Europe 1400-1800

Description

Book Cover -- Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Early modern capitalism -- The end of feudalism and the origins of capitalism -- Trade and the emergence of a world-economy -- The agrarian roots of European capitalism -- Proto-industry and the transition to industrialization -- Economic growth and beyond -- Notes -- 2 The late medieval crisis as an 'integration crisis' -- 1 The 'traditional' feudal economy -- 2 Outline of a new model of the feudal economy -- 3 The late medieval crisis -- 4 From late medieval crisis to early modern growth -- Notes -- 3 The energy basis for early modern growth, 1650-1820 -- 1 Energy sources and energy consumption in the eighteenth century -- Draught animals -- Fuels -- Human energy -- 2 North and south -- 3 The carrying capacity in 1600 -- 4 A new energy system -- Notes -- 4 Early modern economic growth -- 1 Population growth and urbanization -- 2 The development of GDP: country-by-country estimates -- 3 GDP estimates: a sectoral approach -- 4 The character of early modern economic growth -- Notes -- 5 Pre-industrial economic growth and the transition to an industrial economy -- 1 The essence of growth -- 2 Growth before the modern age -- 3 Constraints on premodern growth -- 4 The tools of growth before industrialization -- 5 Transition to modern economic growth -- 6 Conclusion -- Notes -- 6 International capital markets and their users, 1450-1750 -- 1 The integration of money markets in late medieval Europe -- 2 The impact of central European silver -- 3 American silver and the European financial markets -- 4 The expansion of credit -- 5 Conclusion -- Notes -- 7 Labour in proto-industrialization -- 1 Proto-industrial labour equals rural (semi- )proletariat? -- 2 Proto-industrialization equals proletarianization of labour?;This volume takes stock of recent research on economic growth, as well as the development of capital and labour markets, during the centuries that preceded the Industrial Revolution. The book underlines the diversity in the economic experiences of early modern Europeans and suggests how this variety might be the foundation of a new conception of economic and social change.