Author: Lars Magnusson Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1134907729 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 240
Book Description
Ever since the Physiocrats and Adam Smith, mercantilism or 'the mercantile system' have been described as the opposite of classical political economy. This view is very much brought into question by the current book. It argues that the sharp distinction between mercantilism and 19th century laissez-faire economics has obscured the meaning, content and contribution of the former. This book presents a full-scale account of the development of mercantilism as a trend of economic thought during the 17th and 18th centuries. Instead of accepting existing interpretations, it begins with the most fundamental questions: What was mercantilism? Did it have a central message? Was it really a coherent school of thought? A central theme of the book is its critique of narrow definitions of its subject. Mercantilism must be understood as a series of written texts appearing in a particular political and economic context, rather than as an all-embracing system of economic thought. Within this context a language and vocabulary of economics was developed that was an essential precondition for the subsequent growth of economic thought and knowledge. In this sense mercantilism was much more modern than has been previously appreciated.
Author: Lars Magnusson Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317439805 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 261
Book Description
Since the days of Adam Smith, Mercantilism has been a hotly debated issue. Condemned at the end of the 18th century as a "false" system of economic thinking and political practice, it has returned paradoxically to the forefront in regard to issues such as the creation of economic growth in developing countries. This concept is often used in order to depict economic thinking and economic policy in early modern Europe; its meaning and content has been highly debated for over two hundred years. Following on from his 1994 volume Mercantilism – The Shaping of an Economic Language, this new book from Lars Magnusson presents a more synthetic interpretation of Mercantilism not only as a theoretical system, but also as a system of political economy. This book incorporates samples of material from the 1994 publication alongside new material, ordered in a new set of chapters and up-date discussions on mercantilism up to the present day. Tracing the development of a particular political economy of Mercantilism in a period of nascent state making in Western and Continental Europe from the 16th to the 18th century, the book describes how European rulers regarded foreign trade and industrialisation as a means to achieve power and influence amidst international competition over trades and markets. Returning to debates concerning whether Mercantilism was a system of power or of wealth, Magnusson argues that it is in fact was both, and that contemporaries almost without exception saw these goals as interconnected. He also emphasises that Mercantilism was an all-European issue in a time of trade wars and the struggle for international power and recognition. In examining these issues, this book offers an unrivalled modern synthesis of Mercantilist ideas and practices.
Author: E. Damsgård Hansen Publisher: Copenhagen Business School Press DK ISBN: 9788763000178 Category : Economic history Languages : en Pages : 536
Book Description
"The internationalization of the world economy and the economic and political development in Europe are factors that have fostered new interest in the common economic heritage of the European countries. Spanning 500 years, this tale of the economic history of Western Europe seeks to unearth the roots of present day problems."
Author: A. González Enciso Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317518225 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 284
Book Description
War, Power and the Economy contains a comparative history of Great Britain, France and Spain, the three rival empires of the 1700s. It explores how the states prepared for war, what kind of economic means they had, what institutional changes they implemented, and how efficient this was. As such, the book presents the first comparative synthesis aiming to understand the outcome of the global confrontation in the eighteenth century. Faced with the challenge of paying for new and more costly wars, some countries found flexible ways to get more money and better supplies, whereas others did not. The development of freer colonial markets, the increase of consumption and its taxation, the problems of venal administration or the different systems of patronage with contractors, are some of the factors explaining the divergences that were made clear by 1815. This book explores political and economic dimensions of the eighteenth-century European state in order to explain why and how changes in power as an outcome of war depended upon the available means and the way they were obtained and used. The book takes the idea that making war or preparing for it obliged governments to make important changes in their institutions, so that during the eighteenth century the state in many ways formed itself through war efforts. Ultimately, this study aims to show how closely political and military success was entwined with economic interests. This volume is of great interest to those who study economic history, political economy and European history.
Author: Philip J. Stern Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199988536 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 415
Book Description
This volume of collected essays takes a new approach to this problematic subject by rethinking its broad foundations. From a variety of perspectives, its authors situate mercantilism against the backdrop of wider transformations in seventeenth-century Britain, Europe, and the Atlantic, from the scientific revolution to the expansion of empire.--
Author: Cheryl S. McWatters Publisher: ISBN: 9781848936058 Category : Accounting Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Studies of mercantilism have tended to focus on the effects on the originating countries and populations. This new essay collection, based on extensive archival research, redresses that balance to examine the impact such trade had on indigenous populations and peripheral countries.
Author: Aida Ramos Publisher: Springer ISBN: 3319964038 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 143
Book Description
When the Act of Union was passed in 1707, Scottish parliament was dissolved and the nation’s capital became London. While the general public balked at the perceived unfairness of the treaty, the majority of Scottish ministers seemed satisfied with its terms. This book offers an explanation of how that outcome came about. By examining the influence of a particular strain of mercantilist thought, Ramos demonstrates how the negotiations preceding the passage of the Act of Union were shaped by ideas of value, wealth, trade and power, and, accordingly, how the model of positive balance was used to justify the necessity of the Act. Utilizing contemporary evidence from the English and Scottish ministers involved, this book explores alternative arguments regarding the Union, from before 1707 and in early Scottish political economy, thus highlighting the differing economic and political views that have persisted between England and Scotland for centuries. With twenty-first century discontent leading to the Scottish independence referendum and arguments that persist in the wake of the Brexit decision, Ramos produces timely research that investigates ideas of protectionism that feed into mercantilist economic thought.
Author: Lars Magnusson
Author: Lars Magnusson
Author: Donald Cuthbert Coleman
Author: Eli Filip Heckscher
Author: E. Damsgård Hansen
Author: A. González Enciso
Author: Philip J. Stern
Author: Cheryl S. McWatters
Author: Aida Ramos
Author: Adam Smith