Agenda for Early Modern Economic History

Bibliographic Data

ID10103472
AuthorsHarry A Miskimin (Yale University, corresponding author)
Year1971
Volume31
Issue1
Pages172-183
Publication date1971-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Economic History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0507 • E-ISSN: 1471-6372
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022050700094158
OpenAlexW2033564157
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited11

It is graceless, perhaps, to begin by quarrelling with the program committee in my initial remarks, but I must plead that the assignment itself—to propose an agenda for early modern economic history—provides a mandate for such seemingly uncouth behavior. The controversial issue, of course, is the periodization of economic history into the traditional Middle Ages (pre-1500) and the Early Modern Period (post-1500). The division has never been sharp in political or intellectual history, but it is even less meaningful in economic history—there is no single, dramatic, economic event, no ninety-five theses, to establish a break—and the intellectual consequences of the division at 1500 have often been pernicious. When specialists of the early modern period assert nascent capitalism, medievalists point to thirteenth century Italy. When early modernists lay their claims to discovery and colonization, medievalists point first to the early eastern Mediterranean colonies of the Italian city-states and then to the Atlantic explorations of Spain and Portugal, begun in the fourteenth century. If rapid early modern economic growth is the issue, the medievalist will again cry foul and recall that growth was, at least in part, merely the inevitable recovery from the economic collapse of the later middle ages

Ancient history · Early Modern Europe · Early modern period · Economic history · Intellectual history · Mandate · Middle Ages · Modern history · Period (music · Periodization · Political history · Political science · Politics · Economic Theory and Institutions · Economic Theory and Policy · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law