EH468 Half Unit
A Long Road to Capitalism? The Medieval Origins of Modern Economies
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Jordan Claridge
Availability
This course is available on the MA in Asian and International History (LSE and NUS), MA in Modern History, MSc in China in Comparative Perspective, MSc in Economic History, MSc in Economic History (Research), MSc in Empires, Colonialism and Globalisation, MSc in Financial History, MSc in Global Economic History, MSc in International and Asian History and MSc in Political Economy of Late Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: All Economic History courses are controlled access and capped. Priority will be given to students for whom the course is within their programme regulations.
All course choices submitted before the deadline will be considered. It is advisable that students submit a statement in support of their course choices as these will be used to allocate places where a course is oversubscribed.
Deadline for application: First round offers will be sent on Monday 29 September 2025. Students who submit their course choices after the deadline and students wishing to take an Economic History course as an outside option will be waitlisted initially and informed by Wednesday 1 October 2025 whether they have been successful.
Once an offer has been sent, you have 48 hours to accept it before it times out. Once an offer has timed out, it will be re-allocated to someone on the waitlist. In all cases, it is strongly advised that you have an alternative course choice as a back-up in case you are unable to secure your first choice.
For queries contact: If you have any questions, please contact the MSc Programmes Officer (o.harrison1@lse.ac.uk) A list of all taught master's courses in this Department are listed on LSE's course guide webpages. Guidance on how to apply to individual controlled access courses can also be found on LSE for You.
This course is available on the MA in Asian and International History (LSE and NUS), MA in Modern History, MSc in China in Comparative Perspective, MSc in Economic History, MSc in Economic History (Research), MSc in Financial History, MSc in Empires, Colonialism and Globalisation, MSc in Global Economic History, MSc in Global Economic History (Erasmus Mundus), MSc in International and Asian History and MSc in Political Economy of Late Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.
Course content
Economic development is a long, uneven and contested process. Was capitalism an inevitable outcome, or was its emergence as the predominant economic system shaped by forces in the preindustrial past? This course will survey the medieval and early modern worlds to understand how far, and to what degree the antecedents of modern economies stretch back to the Middle Ages. An examination of medieval and early modern economies and societies is also important on its own terms. How did medieval people navigate a constantly, and often cataclysmically, changing world? How did individuals and markets respond to crises like the Black Death? Why did north-western Europe experience economic growth before the rest of the world? To answer these questions, students will explore both the classic literature which looms large in our understanding of the nature of preindustrial economies as well as the latest research which is transforming our understanding of the medieval and early modern world. The course will explore fundamental questions about productivity, inequality, trade and institutional change. In so doing, students will assess long-held assumptions about social structure, the development of markets, and economic development in the preindustrial world. With topics ranging from feudalism to medieval financial systems, this course offers a fresh and rigorous look at the origins of modern economic growth. It focuses on Europe, where the most evidence survives and where debate has been most rigorous, but extends to global history where relevant. This course provides the analytical tools to question, challenge, and refine the way we understand the preindustrial period and its role in shaping the modern world. It will be of broad interest to all economic historians who are interested in the preindustrial period and the broader forces that shaped economic development.
Teaching
20 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
20 hours of Harvard-style seminars in the Winter Term.
Formative assessment
Essay (1500 words) in Winter Term Week 6
Project
Students will be expected to complete an essay and an equivalent assignment during term.
Indicative reading
Bailey, Mark. After the Black Death: Economy, Society, and the Law in Fourteenth-Century England the Ford Lectures for 2019. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
Dyer, Christopher. Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages: Social Change in England, c. 1200-1520. Cambridge Medieval Textbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Hatcher, John, and Mark Bailey. Modelling the Middle Ages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Kitsikopoulos, Harry. Agrarian Change and Crisis in Europe: 1200-1500. London: Routledge, 2020.
Pribyl, Kathleen. Farming, Famine and Plague. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017.
Stone, David. Decision-Making in Medieval Agriculture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Van Bavel, B. J. P. Manors and Markets: Economy and Society in the Low Countries, 500-1600. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Whittle, Jane. The Development of Agrarian Capitalism: Land and Labour in Norfolk, 1440-1580. Oxford Historical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Wrigley, E. A. The Path to Sustained Growth: England’s Transition from an Organic Economy to an Industrial Revolution. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Assessment
Essay (100%)
The essay will be a take-home assessment in the Spring Term.
Key facts
Department: Economic History
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
Keywords: Medieval, Society, Early Modern, Preindustrial, Economic Growth, Markets, Agriculture, Trade
Total students 2024/25: Unavailable
Average class size 2024/25: Unavailable
Controlled access 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Leadership
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Application of numeracy skills
- Specialist skills