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The Economic History of Modern Europe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 May 2010
Extract
When World War II broke out, the economic history of Modern Europe was largely an underdeveloped and uncultivated field. One country only, Britain, had a well-established school of economic historians, which was already quite prolific. In Germany, there had been a promising start at the end of the 19th century, mostly with the historical school of economists, but it had largely petered out, even before the deadly influence of Nazism set in. In other countries, a number of scholars had done valuable and even brilliant work, but they were few and isolated, and political, diplomatic, religious history remained supreme. This was the case, for example, in France, which had one single chair of economic history in its eighteen universities, despite the passionate campaign which had been waged during the 1930's to promote work in economic and social history by the new journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale, under the leadership of Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre. Moreover, pre-war economic history was mostly institutional, with a side-line in the study of techniques and innovations. As Professor Herlihy points out in another article for works on the earlier centuries, scholars were “thinking primarily in terms of institutions and of total economic systems based upon them.”
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- Economic History: Retrospect and Prospect. Papers Presented at the Thirtieth Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
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- Copyright © The Economic History Association 1971
References
1 And it “took off” in some countries, like Spain, where it was practically nonexistent before the war.
2 Comité français des sciences historiques, La Recherche historique en France de 1940 à1965 (Paris: C.N.R.S., 1965), p. xxvGoogle Scholar.
3 References in footnotes are therefore limited to a few works which are considered as representative of recent trends in research.
4 The methodology of British economic history, for instance, derives mainly from the example set by T. S. Ashton, who was the true founder of the “British school.”
5 Bergier, J. F., “Heurs et malheurs de l'histoire économique en Suisse,” Cahiers d'histoire, XII, 1–2 (1967), pp. 41–43Google Scholar (Rencontres franco-suisses d'histoire économique et sociale).
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13 Léon, P., La naissance de la grande Industrie en Dauphiné, fin du XVUe siècle-1869, 2 vols. (Paris: P.U.F., 1954)Google Scholar, a pioneer work in this field; P. Goubert, Beauvais et le Beauvaisis … ; Vilar, P., La Catalogue dans l'Espagne moderne, 3 vols. (Paris: S.E.V.P.E.N., 1962)Google Scholar; Deyon, P., Amiens, Capitale provinciate. Etude sur la société urhaine au 17e siècle (Paris-The Hague: Mouton, 1967)Google Scholar; Le Roy Ladurie, E., Les Paysans de Languedoc (Paris: S.E.V.P.E.N., 1966)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Still these writers pay a good deal of attention to short-term fluctuations.
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An international conference was held at Lyon in October 1970 on the typology of industrialization; its proceedings will be published.
15 For instance Friis, A. and Glamann, K., A History of Prices and Wages in Denmark, 1600–1800, I (Copenhagen and London: Longmans, 1958)Google Scholar; Verfinden, C., éditeur, Dokumenten voor de geschiedenis van prijzen en lonen in Vlaanderen en Brabant (XVe-XVMe eeuw) (Bruges: De Tempel, 1965)Google Scholar; Baulant, M. and Meuvret, J., Prix des ciriales extraits de la Mercuriale de Paris, 1520–1698, 2 vols. (Paris: S.E.V.P.E.N., 1982)Google Scholar.
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In the 1940's and 1950's, there was an idea abroad, especially among French or French influenced historians, that economic development was determined by price movements, which in their turn were regulated by the output of precious metals. Fortunately, one does not hear much of it presently.
17 A precursor in this field was Lindahl, E., Dahlgren, E., Kock, K., National Income of Sweden, 1861–1930 (London: P. S. King and Son, 1937)Google Scholar.
18 For a brief “history” of this undertaking, see Marczewski, J., “Histoire quantitative, buts et méhodes,” Histoire quantitative de l'économie française, I (Paris: I.S.E.A., 1961), pp. xli-xlviiGoogle Scholar.
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Shorter studies devoted to some other countries had been presented to I.A.R.LW.'s meetings and published in Income and Wealth, Series II, III and V (London: Bowes and Bowes, 1952, 1953, 1955).
Simon Kuznets has synthesized the first results of this international research project in his articles “Quantitative Aspects of the Economic Growth of Nations,” Economic Development and Cultural Change (1956–1965); see also his Modem Economic Growth. Rate, Structure and Spread (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1966)Google Scholar.
20 J. Marczewski, “Histoire quantitative, buts et méthodes,” pp. iii-viii; see also Introduction à l'histoire quantitative (Geneva: Droz, 1965)Google Scholar.
21 See for instance, on Deane and Cole: Barker, T. C., “Book Review of Deane and Cole's British Economic Growth, 1688–1959,” Economica, XXXI, n.124 (Nov. 1964), pp. 449–452CrossRefGoogle Scholar; John, A. H., “British Economic Growth, 1688–1959,” Kyklos, XVII, 2 (1964), pp. 276–280CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wright, J. F., “British Economic Growth, 1688–1959,” The Economic History Review, XVIII, 2 (August 1965), pp. 397–412Google Scholar; on Marczewski: Vilar, P., “Pour une meilleure compréhension entre économistes et historiens. ‘Histoire quantitative’ ou économie rétrospective?” Revue Historique, CCXXXIII, 2, n. 474 (April-June 1965), pp. 293–312Google Scholar; Chaunu, P., “Histoire quantitative ou histoire sérielle,” Cahiers Vilfredo Pareto, n.3 (1964), pp. 165–176Google Scholar, with a rejoinder by Marczewski, pp. 177–180; on Hoffmann: Tilly, R., “Soil und Haben: Recent German Economic History and the Problem of Economic Development,” The Journal of Economic History, XXIX, 2 (June 1969), pp. 312–314Google Scholar.
22 Such as Deane's suggestion of an acceleration of economic growth in England in the 1740's, or Toutain's hypothesis about a marked increase in French farm output during the eighteenth century. However, most commentators-except some “hypercritical” historians-have not attacked the principle of using national accounting methods in economic history, but only the ways in which they were concretely applied in the above-mentioned works.
23 Chaunu, P., “Histoire quantitative ou histoire sérielle;” “L'histoire sérielle. Bilan et perspectives,” Revue Historique, n. 494 (April-June 1970), pp. 297–320Google Scholar; H., and Chaunu, P., Séville et l'Atlantique (1504–1650), 12 vols. (Paris: S.E.V.P.E.N., 1956–1960)Google Scholar.
24 E. Le Roy Ladurie et al., “La production agricole en France (XVe-XVIIIe siècle) notamment déaprès les dimes,” Papers prepared for the First Conference of French Economic Historians, Paris, January 1969, (mimeographed); some of these papers have been published, for instance: Goy, J. and Head-König, A.-L., “Une expérience. Les revenus décimaux en France méditerranéenne. XVIe-XVIIIe siècles,” Etudes rurales, n. 36 (1969), pp. 66–83Google Scholar.
We must mention also the important and excellent work on agricultural history, especially from a quantitative point of view, which is being done at Wageningen (Netherlands), by B. H. Slicher van Bath and his collaborators; see for instance his “Yield Ratios, 810–1820,” A. A. G. Bijdragen, 10 (1963Google Scholar).
25 Papers presented at a Conference on this project, which was held in Sheffield in 1969, are about to be published. At Liverpool, a team under J. R. Harris is working on the provision of capital in Lancashire.
One can mention also a tentative index of French industrial production: Crouzet, F., “Essai de construction d'un indice annuel de la production industrielle française au XIXe siècle,” Annales E. S. C, XXV, 1 (January-February 1970), pp. 56–99Google Scholar; English translation in Cameron, Rondo, editor, Essays in French Economic History (Homewood, Ill.: R. D. Irwin, Inc., 1970), pp. 245–278Google Scholar. An index of Belgian industrial production is being prepared at the University of Liege by a team under P. Lebrun.
26 Delumeau, J. et al. , Le mouvement du port de Saint-Malo, 1681–1720. Bilan Statistique (Paris: C. Klincksieck, 1966)Google Scholar; two more volumes are expected on the traffic of this port, for which rich and complete records have been preserved.
27 It has been tried at a world history level by F. Braudel in his Civilisation matérielle et capitalisme (XVe-XVHIe siècle), I (Paris: Armand Colin, 1967); see Chaunu, P., “La pesée globale en histoire,” Cahiers Vilfredo Pareto, 15 (March 1968), pp. 135–164Google Scholar.
28 Marxist writers reject the idea of an autonomous economic history, and object to the separation with “social” (i.e., class straggle) history.
29 Tilly, Richard, “Soil und Haben: Recent German Economic History and the Problem of Economic Development,” The Journal of Economic History, XXIX, 2 (June 1969), p. 301Google Scholar.
30 The Annales school had advocated early a close cooperation between history and geography, which F. Braudel achieved in his master work on the sixteenth century Mediterranean, but in recent years the two disciplines have tended to move apart.
31 On the other hand, the history of sciences and techniques is not much cultivated and remains a separate field, while the relationship between economic and scientific development badly needs to be seriously investigated; see however, Musson, A. E. and Robinson, E., Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1969)Google Scholar. This is true a fortiori, for the history of education, though some interest in it has recently emerged among economic historians.
32 But the correlations between demographic and economic developments are still far from clear.
33 Cuillaume, P. and Poussou, J.-P., Démographie historique (Paris: Armand Colin, 1970), pp. 21 ff.Google Scholar, gives a useful survey of the birth and growth of historical demography. Two decisive turning points were 1952–1953 (articles by P. Goubert and L. Henry on parish registers) and 1958 (publication of Henry's and Gautier's work on Crulay).
34 As a result, of course, of the acute demographic problems of France. The “Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques” had been established in 1945.
35 See for instance Wrigley, E. A., editor, An Introduction to English Historical Demography from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1966)Google Scholar, and the bibliography in his Société et population (Paris: Hachette, 1969)Google Scholar.
36 A pioneer and important work was Daumard, Adeline, La Bourgeoisie parisienne de 1815 à 1848 (Paris: S.E.V.P.E.N., 1963)Google Scholar.
37 German writers have also shown interest in the formation of the industrial labor force, while Britain has a flourishing school of urban history.
38 For instance, Brown, E. H. Phelps and Hopkins, S. V., “Seven Centuries of the Prices of Consumables compared with Builders' Wage-rates,” Economica, N. S., XXIII, 92 (November 1956), pp. 296–314CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Feinstein, C. H., Domestic Capital Formation in the United Kingdom, 1920–1938 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965)Google Scholar; Cairncross, A. K., Home and Foreign Investment, 1870–1913. Studies in Capital Accumulation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953)Google Scholar.
39 Any selection would be arbitrary and unfair, but books like Mathias, Peter, The Brewing Industry in England, 1700–1830 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959)Google Scholar, or Saul, S. B., Studies in British Overseas Trade, 1870–1914 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1960)Google Scholar, show British scholarship at its best.
40 Ashton, T. S., editor, An Economic History of England (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1955)Google Scholar; Briggs, Asa, editor, Social and Economic History of England (London: Longmans, 1962)Google Scholar; The Pelican Economic History of Britain (Hannondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, Ltd., 1967, in progress)Google Scholar.
41 As testified the articles reprinted in Carus-Wilson, E. M., editor, Essays in Economic History, 3 vols. (London: Edward Arnold, 1954–1962)Google Scholar. Compare with “continental” articles in Crouzet, F., Chaloner, W. H. and Stern, W. M., editors, Essays in European Economic History. 1789–1914 (London: Edward Arnold, 1969)Google Scholar.
42 And also Economy and History, published by the Institute of Economic History of the University of Lund.
43 The volume edited by R. Cameron, in the American Economic Association Translation Series, which is quoted in note 25, reprints in English translation a number of French articles on economic history; it includes (pp. 1–8) an excellent introduction on the “French school.”
44 Some of them are quoted in note 13.
45 For instance, the forthcoming book by François Caron on the history of the French Northern Railway (Compagnie du Nord).
46 Labrousse, Ernest, Léon, Pierre, Goubert, Pierre, Bouvier, Jean, Carrière, Charles, Harsin, Paul, Histoire économique et sociale de la France, tome II, Des demiers temps de l'êge seigneurial aux préludes de l'êge industriel (1660–1789) (Paris: P.U.F., 1970)Google Scholar.
47 Vives, J. Vicens, editor, Historia social y económica de Espāna y America, 5 vols. (Barcelona: 1957–1959)Google Scholar, is a major general survey which, unfortunately, could not be built upon a solid monographic basis.
48 See Van Houtte, J. A., éditeur, Un quart de siècle de recherche historique en Belgique, 1944–1968 (Louvain and Paris: Nauwelaerts, 1970)Google Scholar.
49 A noteworthy Italian undertaking is the multi-volume Archivio Economico dell'unificazione italiana, edited by Cipolla, Carlo (Turino: ILTE, 1956-)Google Scholar. There is also a rich Italian literature on agrarian problems.
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51 See some works quoted by R. Tilly, “Soil und Haben …,” p. 314.
52 F. Braudel, P. Chaunu, L. Dermigny and F. Mauro have also produced large frescoes of “oceanic” history.
53 Though this was achieved in some contributions to The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, especially the outstanding chapter by David Landes in volume VI, which has been reprinted as The Unbound Prometheus. Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969)Google Scholar.
54 C. M. Cipolla, editor, The Fontana Economic History of Europe (1969, in progress).
55 An exception would be a couple of works on twentieth century economic history: Svennilson, I., Growth and Stagnation in the European Economy (Geneva: United Nations Commission for Europe, 1954)Google Scholar; Postan, M. M., An Economic History of Western Europe, 1945–1964 (London: Methuen, 1967)Google Scholar.
56 A first approach is North, D. C. and Thomas, R. P., “An Economic Theory of the Growth of the Western World,” The Economic History Review, XXIIL 1 (April 1970), pp. 1–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
57 However, some European scholars have used quite recently an econometrical or theoretical approach; for example, van der Wee, H. and Peeters, T., “Un modele économique de croissance interséculaire du commerce mondial (Xlle-XVIIIe siècles),” Annales E.S.C., XXV, 1 (January-February 1970), pp. 100–126Google Scholar; Hicks, John, A Theory of Economic History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969)Google Scholar.
58 This controversy is surveyed in Aldcroft, D. H. and Richardson, H. W., The British Economy, 1870–1939 (London: Macmillan, 1969)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
59 By D. C. Coleman (Courtaulds), T. C. Barker (Pilkington), C. Wilson (Unilever), in Britain; J. Bouvier (Crédit Lyonnais), B. Gille (Rothschild), P. Leon (Allevard), in France; W. Treue, and many others in Germany; G. Jacquemyns (Langrand-Dumonceau), in Belgium; O. Gasslander (Stockholm Enskilda Bank), K. G. Hildebrand (Stora Kopparberg), in Sweden, etc ….
60 Chaunu, P., “L'histoire geographique,” Revue de l'enseignement supérieur, 44–45 (1969), p. 67Google Scholar.
61 Most British historians stress now the importance of the home market for English economic growth, rather than the more spectacular rise of the export trade.
62 Bairoch, P., “Le mythe de la croissance économique rapide au XIXe siècle,” Revue de l'Institut de Sociologie, 2 (Brussels, 1962), pp. 307–331Google Scholar.