Economic History Before the Industrial Revolution

This book traces the evolution of the world economy before the Industrial Revolution: the ideas, institutions and practices that formed the basis of the modern economic system. It begins in Antiquity: the rise of trade, money and credit in Sumer, the Greek contribution to the economy and the organization of Rome. It then explores the Middle Ages, marked by Christian thought, feudalism, the scholastics and the transformations caused by the Black Death, wars and the absolutist state.The book also analyzes the origin of money and banking in the West, from the invention of coinage to the banking systems of Genoa, Venice and Florence, and the first treatises on prices, supply, demand and value.It then moves on to the Modern Age, with the rise of mercantilism, trading companies, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, and the intellectual transition to political and economic liberalism. Finally, it examines the birth of the international monetary system: the Dutch public debt, the British gold standard, the creation of the Bank of England and the first great financial bubbles that anticipated global capitalism.