This course is compulsory for all BSc Economic History (single honours programme) first year students.
Core syllabus
This course surveys long-term processes of growth and development in late medieval and early modern Europe (fourteenth to eighteenth centuries). It focuses on the transition from a hierarchical society of estates or corporate orders to a market society based on legal equality. There are two core questions: First, why did this transition occur in an evolutionary way in England and the Netherlands, whereas it was severely delayed the rest of Europe? And second, how is it related to the ‘small divergence’ between the Dutch Republic and England on the one side and most of the Continent on the other, where the North-West enjoyed significantly higher living standards and per capita incomes than other countries even before industrialisation began?
The course thus raises fundamental questions about societies and economies: Was pre-industrial economic growth transitory and regional? Or was it a recurrent, even normal phenomenon, which however could occasionally be reversed? Was Dutch and British success the result of their social and institutional features? Or was it a combination of geographical factors and good fortune? To what degree did early modern governments help or hinder economic development? Did Europe’s political fragmentation hold back the continent’s development, or did competition between states have beneficial consequences? In conclusion, can we define an optimal combination of social, political, and economic institutions that sustained growth in the past (and thus, perhaps, in the future)?
Reading
There is no single suitable textbook for this course, but several good general surveys are available. Everyone is expected to read at least one of the following titles:
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Cipolla, C.M. ed. (1971/72). The Fontana economic history of Europe, vols. 1 and 2, London (Fontana). Useful. Detailed discussions of specific themes
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de Vries, J. (1976). The economy of Europe in an age of crisis, 1600-1750, Cambridge, London, New York etc. (Cambridge University Press). After almost 35 years still the best short introduction to the early modern economy.
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Miskimin, H. (1969). The Economy of Early Renaissance Europe 1300-1460.
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Englewood Cliffs/NJ: Prentice-Hall. Excellent introduction to the late-medieval economy.
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Miskimin, H. (1977). The Economy of Later Renaissance Europe 1460-1600.
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Cambridge, London, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Continues the author’s earlier text book.
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Persson, K. G. (2010). An Economic History of Europe: Knowledge, Institutions and Growth, 600 to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Very good new textbook based on a theory-guided approach.
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The following titles discuss a number of concepts and theories to which the lecture will refer.Anderson, J.L. (1991): Explaining long-term economic change, Cambridge (Cambridge University Press) provides a short introduction to some of the issues we will be discussing.
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Hatcher, J. and Bailey, M. (2001): Modelling the Middle Ages. The History and Theory of England’s Economic Development, Oxford (Oxford University Press). A useful and theory-critical introductory text.