Karl Persson surveys a broad sweep of economic history, examining one of the most crucial markets--grain--in order to demonstrate more general points. Grain Markets in Europe traces the markets' early regulation, their poor performance and the frequent market failures. Price volatility caused by harvest shocks was of major concern for central and local government because of the unrest it caused. Persson uses insights from development economics, explores contemporary economic thought on the advantages of free trade, and measures the extent of market integration using the latest econometric...

This book explores the long term forces shaping business attitudes in the British and American cotton industries from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Mary Rose traces the social, political and developmental differences of the two nations, and examines local and regional networks, changing competitive environments, and community characteristics. She demonstrates how firms become embedded in networks, and evolve according to business values and strategies. An important contribution to comparative business history, this book will be of interest to graduates and scholars in all areas of...

Tooze provides an interpretation of the period of dramatic statistical innovation between 1900 and 1945. The Weimar Republic and the Third Reich were in the forefront of statistical innovation in the interwar decades. New ways of measuring the economy were inspired both by contemporary developments in macroeconomic theory and the needs of government. Under the Nazi regime, these statistical tools provided the basis for a radical experiment in economic planning. Based on the German example, Tooze argues for a more wide-ranging reconsideration of the history of modern economic knowledge.

The Balkan Economies c. 1800-1914 is a strongly revisionist book that compares the economic progress of Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia in the century before World War One. Native language primary sources are used to argue that these territories probably experienced economic decline rather than growth, at least from the mid-nineteenth century. But far from hindering development, Ottoman rule made possible more progress than successive governments. This in-depth study promises to be the definitive economic history of the Balkans.

In the first major study in English of Spanish agrarian history, James Simpson examines how traditional agriculture responded to population growth and the integration of commodity markets. He argues that decisive changes in farming techniques only occurred at the start of this century; development was then interrupted by the Spanish Civil War and subsequent short-sighted government policies, only resuming in the 1950s. This comprehensive study will be of relevance to historical geography and agrarian history, as well as economic history.

Ivan Berend uses a vast range of sources, as well as his own personal experience, to analyze the fortunes of the postwar socialist regimes in Eastern Europe. His comparative approach stretches beyond the confines of economic history to produce a work of political economy, encompassing the cultural and personal forces that have influenced the development of the "Eastern Bloc" countries over the past fifty years. The book is distinguished by its unique combination of time, region and topic, and is a major contribution to the economic history of the twentieth century.

The Balkan Economies c. 1800-1914 is a strongly revisionist book that compares the economic progress of Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia in the century before World War One. Native language primary sources are used to argue that these territories probably experienced economic decline rather than growth, at least from the mid-nineteenth century. But far from hindering development, Ottoman rule made possible more progress than successive governments. This in-depth study promises to be the definitive economic history of the Balkans.

This book examines the growth of the world silk industry. Professor Federico documents Western industrialization, the technical progress and the changing methods of production that enabled the silk industry to cope with increased demand. Silk became the first Japanese success story on the world market, with Italy retaining a sizeable share until labor was diverted as a result of its industrialization. Japanese industrialization also led its silk industry to a similar fate after the Second World War.

Ivan Berend uses a vast range of sources, as well as his own personal experience, to analyze the fortunes of the postwar socialist regimes in Eastern Europe. His comparative approach stretches beyond the confines of economic history to produce a work of political economy, encompassing the cultural and personal forces that have influenced the development of the "Eastern Bloc" countries over the past fifty years. The book is distinguished by its unique combination of time, region and topic, and is a major contribution to the economic history of the twentieth century.

This analysis of a crucial transformation in the history of world trade reveals how London and its surroundings grew during the eighteenth century to become the first true entrepot. The city developed a new kind of commercial structure sharply distinct from that of Holland and Amsterdam during the seventeenth century.