Structure and Change in Economic History

by North, Douglass C.

• ISBN13: 9780393952414
• ISBN10: 039395241X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1982-10-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

At the core of Professor North's investigation is the question of property rights, the arrangements individuals and groups have made through history to deal with the fundamental economic problem of scarce resources.In six theoretical chapters, Professor North examines the structure of economic systems, outlines an economic theory of the state and the ideologies that undergird various modes of economic organization, and then explores the dynamic forces such as new technologies that cause institutions to adapt in order to survive. With this analytical framework in place, major phases in Western history come under careful reappraisal, from the origins of agriculture and the neolithic revolution through the political economy of the ancient and medieval worlds to the industrial revolution and the economic transformations of the twentieth century.Structure and Change in Economic History is a work that will reshape many established explanations of the growth of the west.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Part I Theory	1	(68)
The Issues	3	(10)
An Introduction to the Structure of Economies	13	(7)
A Neoclassical Theory of the State	20	(13)
A Framework for Analyzing Economic Organization in History	33	(12)
Ideology and the Free Rider Problem	45	(14)
Structure and Change in Economic History	59	(10)
Part II History	69	(130)
Introduction	71	(1)
The First Economic Revolution	72	(18)
The Organizational Consequences of the First Economic Revolution	90	(23)
Economic Change and Decline in the Ancient World	113	(11)
The Rise and Decline of Feudalism	124	(19)
Structure and Change in Early Modern Europe	143	(15)
The Industrial Revolution Reconsidered	158	(13)
The Second Economic Revolution and Its Consequences	171	(16)
Structure and Change in the American Economy, 1789-1914	187	(12)
Part III. Theory and History	199	(12)
A Theory of Institutional Change and the Economic History of the Western World	201	(10)
Bibliography	211	(10)
Index	221