Guilds, Innovation and the European Economy, 1400–1800

Guilds, Innovation and the European Economy, 1400–1800 PDF Author: S. R. Epstein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139471074
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
For a long time guilds have been condemned as a major obstacle to economic progress in the pre-industrial era. This re-examination of the role of guilds in the early modern European economy challenges that view by taking into account fresh research on innovation, technological change and entrepreneurship. Leading economic historians argue that industry before the Industrial Revolution was much more innovative than previous studies have allowed for and explore the different products and production techniques that were launched and developed in this period. Much of this innovation was fostered by the craft guilds that formed the backbone of industrial production before the rise of the steam engine. The book traces the manifold ways in which guilds in a variety of industries in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Britain helped to create an institutional environment conducive to technological and marketing innovations.

Guilds, Innovation and the European Economy, 1400–1800

Guilds, Innovation and the European Economy, 1400–1800 PDF Author: S. R. Epstein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139471074
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319

Get Book Here

Book Description
For a long time guilds have been condemned as a major obstacle to economic progress in the pre-industrial era. This re-examination of the role of guilds in the early modern European economy challenges that view by taking into account fresh research on innovation, technological change and entrepreneurship. Leading economic historians argue that industry before the Industrial Revolution was much more innovative than previous studies have allowed for and explore the different products and production techniques that were launched and developed in this period. Much of this innovation was fostered by the craft guilds that formed the backbone of industrial production before the rise of the steam engine. The book traces the manifold ways in which guilds in a variety of industries in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Britain helped to create an institutional environment conducive to technological and marketing innovations.

Institutions and European Trade

Institutions and European Trade PDF Author: Sheilagh Ogilvie
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139500392
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 501

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Book Description
What was the role of merchant guilds in the medieval and early modern economy? Does their wide prevalence and long survival mean they were efficient institutions that benefited the whole economy? Or did merchant guilds simply offer an effective way for the rich and powerful to increase their wealth, at the expense of outsiders, customers and society as a whole? These privileged associations of businessmen were key institutions in the European economy from 1000 to 1800. Historians debate merchant guilds' role in the Commercial Revolution, economists use them to support theories about institutions and development, and policymakers view them as prime examples of social capital, with important lessons for modern economies. Sheilagh Ogilvie's magisterial new history of commercial institutions shows how scrutinizing merchant guilds can help us understand which types of institution made trade grow, why institutions exist, and how corporate privileges affect economic efficiency and human well-being.

The European Guilds

The European Guilds PDF Author: Sheilagh Ogilvie
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691217025
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 682

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Book Description
"Guilds ruled many crafts and trades from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution, and have always attracted debate and controversy. They were sometimes viewed as efficient institutions that guaranteed quality and skills. But they also excluded competitors, manipulated markets, and blocked innovations. Did the benefits of guilds outweigh their costs? Analyzing thousands of guilds that dominated European economies from 1000 to 1880, The European Guilds uses vivid examples and clear economic reasoning to answer that question. Sheilagh Ogilvie's book features the voices of honorable guild masters, underpaid journeymen, exploited apprentices, shady officials, and outraged customers, and follows the stories of the "vile encroachers"--Women, migrants, Jews, gypsies, bastards, and many others--desperate to work but hunted down by the guilds as illicit competitors. She investigates the benefits of guilds but also shines a light on their dark side. Guilds sometimes provided important services, but they also manipulated markets to profit their members. They regulated quality but prevented poor consumers from buying goods cheaply. They fostered work skills but denied apprenticeships to outsiders. They transmitted useful techniques but blocked innovations that posed a threat. Guilds existed widely not because they corrected market failures or served the common good but because they benefited two powerful groups--guild members and political elites."--Rabat de la jaquette.

Guilds, Innovation, and the European Economy, 1400-1800

Guilds, Innovation, and the European Economy, 1400-1800 PDF Author: Epstein Stephan R Prak Maarten Roy
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780511388446
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description


Town and Country in Europe, 1300-1800

Town and Country in Europe, 1300-1800 PDF Author: S. R. Epstein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521548045
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
This 2001 book was the first survey of relations between town and country across Europe between 1300 and 1800.

Guilds, Innovation, and the European Economy, 1400-1800

Guilds, Innovation, and the European Economy, 1400-1800 PDF Author: Stephan R. Epstein
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780511387456
Category : Europe
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description


The European Nobility, 1400-1800

The European Nobility, 1400-1800 PDF Author: Jonathan Dewald
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521425285
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
An authoritative and accessible survey of the European nobility over four centuries.

Apprenticeship in Early Modern Europe

Apprenticeship in Early Modern Europe PDF Author: Maarten Prak
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110849692X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
This comparative study of the European history of apprenticeship offers a comprehensive picture of occupational training before the Industrial Revolution.

Innovation and Creativity in Late Medieval and Early Modern European Cities

Innovation and Creativity in Late Medieval and Early Modern European Cities PDF Author: Karel Davids
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317116534
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
Late medieval and early modern cities are often depicted as cradles of artistic creativity and hotbeds of new material culture. Cities in renaissance Italy and in seventeenth and eighteenth-century northwestern Europe are the most obvious cases in point. But, how did this come about? Why did cities rather than rural environments produce new artistic genres, new products and new techniques? How did pre-industrial cities evolve into centres of innovation and creativity? As the most urbanized regions of continental Europe in this period, Italy and the Low Countries provide a rich source of case studies, as the contributors to this volume demonstrate. They set out to examine the relationship between institutional arrangements and regulatory mechanisms such as citizenship and guild rules and innovation and creativity in late medieval and early modern cities. They analyze whether, in what context and why regulation or deregulation influenced innovation and creativity, and what the impact was of long-term changes in the political and economic sphere.

The Return of the Guilds: Volume 16

The Return of the Guilds: Volume 16 PDF Author: Jan Lucassen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521737654
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Using recent approaches in economic, social, labour and institutional history, this volume analyses guilds in the period 500-1700 AD.