Rural Economies and Transitions to Capitalism

G ermany and E ngland Compared ( c .1200– c .1800)

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7838958
AutoresGhosh (0000-0002-7609-6139, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies 59 Queen's Park Crescent East Toronto Ontario M5S 2C4 Canada, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen16
Número2
Páginas255-290
Fecha de publicación2016-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Agrarian Change (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1471-0358 • E-ISSN: 1471-0366
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/joac.12096
OpenAlexW1566227071
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas116

Based on a synthesis of the empirical scholarship on E ngland and G ermany, this paper demonstrates that in both regions, rural socio‐economic developments from c. 1200 to c. 1800 are similar: this period witnesses the rise to numerical predominance and growing economic significance of the ‘sub‐peasant classes’, which had a growing impact on the market as a result of their increasing market dependence, and from which – towards the end of the period – a rural proletariat emerged. Against the influential theory of R obert B renner, it is argued that the period c. 1200– c. 1400 cannot really be categorized as ‘feudal’ according to B renner's definition; and ‘agrarian capitalism’ does not adequately describe the socio‐economic system that obtained by the end of the sixteenth century. A genuine transition to capitalism is only evident from after c.1750, and can be found in G ermany as well as in E ngland; it is predicated both on ideological shifts and on the evolution of the rural proletariat, which is only found in large numbers by or after c. 1800

Agrarian society · Agriculture · Capitalism · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Feudalism · Geography · Ideology · Market economy · Peasant · Period (music · Political science · Proletariat · Scholarship · Sociology · Historical Economic and Legal Thought · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law · Philosophy