Introduction

Historians have traditionally displayed an interest in the institutions within which human action occurs, and much of their work has involved an examination of the interaction between people and these institutions. Economic historians, especially the ‘new’ group, have, on the other hand, focused their efforts on economically rational behavior as an explanation of past events; institutions have been taken as given, and the ‘antiquarian’ interests of the more traditional historians have sometimes been scorned. Perhaps because of their concern with long-run change, traditional historians have recognized that institutions do have something to do with the speed and pattern of economic growth (a relationship that was obvious to them but one that economists have only gradually perceived). Much of written history is devoted to the study of the evolution and development of political, military, and social institutions; and just as these sophisticated institutions have evolved through history, so have complex economic institutions emerged to provide a part of the framework within which a highly technical society can survive and flourish. While there are few pieces of history that do not lean heavily upon some form of theory, unfortunately, there has been little theory to help understand the phenomena of institutional change. In the absence of such theory, history is limited to narration, classification, and description. There are relatively few historians who would willingly accept such a limitation.