Medieval Economic History in Comparative Perspective

Readings

[Hawthorn] = Hawthorn, Geoffrey, ed. The Standard of Living: Tanner Lectures. Cambridge University Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780521368407. [Preview with Google Books]

[Persson] = Persson, Karl Gunnar. An Economic History of Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780521549400. [Preview with Google Books]

SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Some Big Questions in Economic History, and How to Think About Them	Solow, Robert. “Economics: Is Something Missing?.” In Economic History and the Modern Economist. Edited by William N. Parker. Blackwell Publishers, 1986, pp. 21–9. ISBN: 9780631147992.
2	Late Roman Antiquity and Barbarian Europe	Hatcher, John, and Mark Bailey. Modeling the Middle Ages: The History and Theory of England’s Economic Development. Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 1–10. ISBN: 9780199244126. [Persson] Introduction and Chapter 1, pp. 1–20.
3	Late Roman Antiquity and Barbarian Europe (cont.)
4	Fundamentals of Good History Writing
5	The Structure of Medieval Life: Manorialism and Feudalism	Duby, Georges. Early Growth of the European Economy. Cornell University Press, 1974, pp. 162–80. ISBN: 9780801408144. [Preview with Google Books] Fossier, Robert. Chapter 2 in Peasant Life in the Medieval West. Blackwell Pub, 1988. ISBN: 9780631143635. Genicot, Leopold. Chapter 1 in Rural Communities in the Medieval West. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780801838705.
6	The Wider Medieval World: Vikings, Mongols, and Saracens
7	The Wider Medieval World: Vikings, Mongols, and Saracens (cont.)	Monk, Robert the. “A Jerusalem History, c. 1110.” Selections from Urban and the Crusaders. Revised ed. Vol. 1, no. 2. Edited by Dana C. Munro. Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History. AMS Press, 1971/1897, pp. 5–8. De Joinville, Jean. “The Book of the Holy Words and Good Deeds of Our King, Saint Louis (1309).” The Medieval Record: Sources of Medieval History. Selected by Alfred J. Andrea. Wadsworth Publishing, 1997. pp. 367–70. ISBN: 9780395718629. Annals of Xanten, pp. 845–53. Mortensen, Lars Boje. A selection from Historia Norwegie. Museum Tusculanum Press, 2003. ISBN: 9788772898131. [Preview with Google Books]
8	The ‘Dark Ages’: Myth or Reality	Lopez, Robert. Chapter 1 in The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950–1350. Cambridge University Press, 1976, pp. 1–26. ISBN: 9780521290463. [Preview with Google Books] McCormick, Michael. “New Light on the Dark Ages: How the Slave Trade Fuelled the Carolingian Economy.” Past and Present 177, no. 1 (2002): 17–54.
9	The ‘Dark Ages’: Myth or Reality (cont.)
10	Medieval Agriculture and Commercialization: A Revised Story	Clark, Gregory. “The Economics of Exhaustion.” The Journal of Economic History 52, no. 1 (1992): 61–84. Campbell, Bruce. “Economic Rent and the Intensification of English Agriculture, 1086–1350.” In Medieval Farming and Technology: The Impact of Agricultural Change in Northwest Europe. Edited by G. Astill and J. Langdon. Brill Academic Pub, 1997, pp. 225–50. ISBN: 9789004105829. [Preview with Google Books]
11	Rise of the Commune and Revival of Trade: Counterpoint to Autarkic Agriculture	Lopez, Robert. Chapter 3 in The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950–1350. Cambridge University Press, 1976, pp. 56–84. ISBN: 9780521290463. Lopez Robert S., Iriving W. Raymond, Olivia Remie Constable, et al. “The Jewish Role in World Trade,” “Milan in 1288,” “Reports from the Fairs of Champagne,” “The Great Fair at Thessalonika” and “Traveling to China.” Selections from Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World. Columbia University Press. ISBN: 9780231123570. [Preview with Google Books]
12	Rise of the Commune and Revival of Trade: Counterpoint to Autarkic Agriculture (cont.)	[Persson] Chapter 2, pp. 21-41.
13	The Plague and Its Consequences	Harvey, Barbara. “Introduction: The Crisis of the Early Fourteenth Century.” In Before the Black Death: Studies in ‘Crisis’ of the Early Fourteenth Century. Edited by Bruce Campbell. St. Martin’s Press, 1991, pp. 1–24. ISBN: 9780719039270. [Preview with Google Books] Knighton, Henry. Selections from Chronicle 1348. Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780198205036. Domar, Evessy. “The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom.” Journal of Economic History 30, no. 1 (1970): 18–32. Bailey, Mark. “Demographic Decline in Late Medieval England.” Economic History Review 49, no. 1 (1996): 1–19. [Persson] Chapter 3, pp. 42–59.
14	The Plague and Its Consequences (cont.)
15	Overseas Expansion of Europe	[Persson] Chapter 4, pp. 60–73. Jones, David S. “Virgin Soils Revisited.” William and Mary Quarterly 60, no. 4 (2003): 703–42. Columbus, Christopher, et al. selections from The Diario of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to America, 1492–1493. University of Oklahoma Press, 1989. ISBN: 978–0806121017. [Preview with Google Books]
16	Overseas Expansion of Europe (cont.)
17	Oral Presentations
18	Methodology and Theories of Historical Demography	Wrigley, E. A., and R. S. Schofield. Population History of England. Cambridge University Press, 1989, tables from pp. 468 and 474. ISBN: 9780521356886. [Preview with Google Books] Fogel, Robert. “Second Thoughts on the European Escape from Hunger: Famines, Chronic Malnutrition, and Mortality Rates.” Nutrition and Poverty. Edited by S.R. Osmani. Clarendon Press, 1992, pp. 243-286.  Hatcher, Mark. “Understanding the Population History of England 1450–1750.” Past and Present 180, no. 1 (2003): 83–130. Optional: Kremer, Michael."Population Growth and Technological Change." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 108, no. 3 (1993): 681–716.
19	Methodology and Theories of Historical Demography (cont.)
20	Grand Theories About Economic Development: Malthusians, Marxists and the Neo–Classical Tradition	Wallerstein, Immanuel. “Three Paths of National Development in 16th Century Europe.” The Capitalist World Economy 7, no. 2 (1972): 95–101. Rosenthal, Jean Laurent, and R. Bin. Wong. Chapters 1 and 2 in Before and Beyond Divergence. Harvard Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780674057913. [Preview with Google Books] Hatcher, John, and Mark Bailey. Modelling the Middle Ages. OUP Oxford, 2001, pp. 174–201. IBSN: 9780199244126. Recommended reading: Brenner, Robert. “Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development.” Past and Present, no. 70 (1976): 30–75. Drelichman, Mauricio. “All that Glitters: Precious Metals, Rent Seeking and the Decline of Spain.” European Review of Economic History 9, no. 3 (2005): 313–36.
21	Grand Theories About Economic Development: Malthusians, Marxists and the Neo–Classical Tradition (cont.)
22	Capitalist Organization of Economic Life: The Globalization of Trade and the Rise of Consumer Culture	Braudel, Fernand. The Wheels of Commerce. University of California Press, 1992, pp. 231–49. ISBN: 9780520081154. (Skim) McCants, Anne E. C. “Exotic Goods, Popular Consumption, and the Standard of Living: Thinking About Globalization in the Early Modern World.” Journal of World History 18, no. 4 (2007): 433–62. [Persson] Chapter 5, pp. 74–91. Please bring with you to class a copy of Gregory King’s “Social Table.”
23	Capitalist Organization of Economic Life: The Globalization of Trade and the Rise of Consumer Culture (cont.)
24	Measuring Welfare	[Hawthorn] pp. 1–38 (I highly recommend you look at the comment by Keith Hart, pp. 70–93.) [Preview with Google Books]
25	The Rise of North–Western Europe: Improvements in the Standard of Living.	de Vries, Jan. “Economic Growth before and after the Industrial Revolution: a Modest Proposal.” In Early Modern Capitalism. Edited by Maarten Prak. Routledge, 2001. ISBN: 9780415217149. Recommended: Mokyr, Joel. “Dear Labor, cheap Labor, and the Industrial Revolution.” In Favorites of Fortune. Edited by Patrice Higonnet, David S. Landes and Henry Rosovsky. Harvard University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780674295209. [Preview with Google Books] Horrell, Sara, Jane Humphries, et al. “Destined for Deprivation: Human Capital Formation and Intergenerational Poverty in Nineteenth–Century England.” Explorations in Economic History 38, no. 3 (2001): 339–65.