It is widely believed that current disparities in economic, political, and social outcomes reflect distinct institutions. Institutions are invoked to explain why some countries are rich and others poor, some democratic and others dictatorial. But arguments of this sort gloss over the question of what institutions are, how they come about, and why they persist. They also fail to explain why institutions are influenced by the past, why it is that they can sometimes change, why they differ so much from society to society, and why it is hard to study them empirically and devise a policy aimed at altering them. This 2006 book seeks to overcome these problems, which have exercised economists, sociologists, political scientists, and a host of other researchers who use the social sciences to study history, law, and business administration. It presents a multi-disciplinary perspective to study endogenous institutions and their dynamics.

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Institutions and the path to the modern economy

Why did the industrial revolution take place in eighteenth-century Britain and not elsewhere in Europe or Asia? In this convincing new account Robert Allen argues that the British industrial revolution was a successful response to the global economy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He shows that in Britain wages were high and capital and energy cheap in comparison to other countries in Europe and Asia. As a result, the breakthrough technologies of the industrial revolution - the steam engine, the cotton mill, and the substitution of coal for wood in metal production - were uniquely profitable to invent and use in Britain. The high wage economy of pre-industrial Britain also fostered industrial development since more people could afford schooling and apprenticeships. It was only when British engineers made these new technologies more cost-effective during the nineteenth century that the industrial revolution would spread around the world.

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The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective

Preface and acknowledgments Introduction 1. Explanation and dialectics Part I. Philosophy and Economics: 2. Philosophical anthropology 3. Economics 4. Exploitation, freedom and justice Part II. Theory of History: 5. Modes of production 6. Classes 7. Politics and the state 8. Ideologies 9. Capitalism, communism and revolution Conclusion references Index of names index of subjects.

Making Sense of Marx

The Industrious Revolution by Jan de Vries

The Industrious Revolution: List of Figures

Introduction: Deconstructing Capitalism PART I: ECONOMIC STRUCTURES The Sixteenth-Century Growth of the Market The Structure and Practice of Marketing Activity and its Expansion i) Communication and Bargaining and the Just Price ii) Urban Development Transactions on the Market iii) King's Lynn Wealth Categories The Structure of Credit Networks PART II: THE CULTURE OF CREDIT The Sociability of Credit and Commerce The Cultural Currency of Credit and the Construction of Reputation Doubts about Trust i) Tradesmen's and Merchants' Credit PART III: CREDIT AND ITS DISCONTENTS Disputes and Levels of Litigation i) Procedure in Urban Courts of Record ii) Levels of Litigation in Local Courts iii) Popular Participation in Litigation iv) Judgements in Local Courts Litigation and the Social Order: Debt and Downward Mobility i) Legal Process and the Loss of Credit ii) The Mutability of Wealth and Social Judgement iii) The Poor Conclusion: The Contractual Society Appendix I Appendix II Bibliography Index List of Tables List of Figures List of Maps Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Notes on Dates

The Economy of Obligation: The Culture of Credit and Social Relations in Early Modern England

(1993). Interpreting the market: The ethics of credit and community relations in early modern England. Social History: Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 163-183.

Interpreting the market: The ethics of credit and community relations in early modern England

The economy of obligation

‘hard food for midas’: cash and its social value in early modern england

The purpose of this article is to estimate the workforce involved in spinning from the late sixteenth century until the eve of mechanization. In addition, the potential contribution to family earnings from spinning will be examined. Just about all of the millions of yards of woollen yarn that went into making English cloth had to be spun by women and children, but this activity has not been investigated to the extent that it deserves. Spinning was a skilled occupation where there was a great demand for the best quality product. Sources exist which make it possible to make general estimates of the amount of spinning needed in the economy, and its cost. This evidence shows that employment in spinning increased dramatically from the late seventeenth century, and continued to increase until there were probably over one million women and children employed in spinning by the mid-eighteenth century. In addition earnings increased to the extent whereby earnings from spinning could contribute over 30 per cent of household income for poorer families. This has implications for looking at trends in real wages over time, as well as for the concept of the industrious revolution.

‘Th'ancient Distaff’ and ‘Whirling Spindle’: measuring the contribution of spinning to household earnings and the national economy in England, 1550–17701

Craig Muldrew

Papers

The Economy of Obligation: The Culture of Credit and Social Relations in Early Modern England

Interpreting the market: The ethics of credit and community relations in early modern England

The economy of obligation

‘hard food for midas’: cash and its social value in early modern england

‘Th'ancient Distaff’ and ‘Whirling Spindle’: measuring the contribution of spinning to household earnings and the national economy in England, 1550–17701