Kinship and Capitalism: Marriage, Family, and Business in the English-Speaking World, 1580-1740

ISBN-13: 9780521782036 / Angielski / Twarda / 2000 / 528 str.

Richard Grassby

Opis

This uncompromisingly empirical study reconstructs the public and private lives of urban business families during the period of England's emergence as a world economic power. Using a broad cross-section of archival, rather than literary, sources, it tests the orthodox view that the family as an institution was transformed by capitalism and individualism. The overall conclusion is that none of the abstract models invented to explain the historical development of the family withstand empirical scrutiny and that familial capitalism, not possessive individualism, was the motor of economic growth.

Recenzje

'The sections on the accumulation of capital, on women and widows in business are particularly full of interesting stimuli for social and economic historians, and will not fail to inspire future research in what remains the great unanswered question in the relationship between family and business … ' Journal of Urban History

Spis treści

Tables; Abbreviations; Explanatory notes; Preface; Introduction: models and myths; Part I. Marriage: 1. Making a match; 2. Husbands and wives; 3. Widowers and widows; Part II. The Business Family: 4. Parents and children; 5. Adulthood and old age; 6. Kin and community; Part III. The Family Business: 7. Men in business; 8. Women in business; 9. Inheritance and advancement; Conclusion: capitalism and the life cycle; Appendices; Sources; Index.