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| Cambridge Economic History of Europe | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cambridge Economic History of Europe |
| Subject | Economic history |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Media type | |
Cambridge Economic History of Europe is a multi-volume scholarly work covering the economic development of Europe from antiquity to the modern era. It synthesizes research by leading historians, demographers, and economists connected to institutions such as Cambridge University, Harvard University, London School of Economics, University of Oxford, and University of Chicago. The series situates European transformations in relation to events like the Black Death, the Industrial Revolution, the Thirty Years' War, the Age of Discovery, and the Treaty of Westphalia.
The series assembles contributions that address regional and transnational processes across periods associated with figures such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Fernand Braudel, and W. W. Rostow. Chapters engage with episodes including the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Carolingian Empire, the Reformation, the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Congress of Vienna. Contributors analyze institutions like the Hanoverian dynasty, the House of Habsburg, the Ottoman Empire, the Dutch Republic, and the Kingdom of Prussia while drawing on quantitative traditions pioneered at centers such as Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Max Planck Institute for History, and Nuffield College.
First issued in multiple parts across decades, the series was produced by Cambridge University Press with editions appearing alongside other major reference works such as the Cambridge Histories. Major editions were released during periods overlapping with the tenure of scholars associated with Trinity College, Cambridge, Balliol College, All Souls College, and the Royal Historical Society. Revised and expanded printings responded to historiographical shifts prompted by events such as the publication of works by Simon Schama, E. P. Thompson, Joan Robinson, and Douglass C. North. Later printings incorporated debates influenced by scholarship from Princeton University, Columbia University, Yale University, and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
Volumes are organized thematically and chronologically to cover subjects ranging from agricultural change under the Enclosure Acts and innovations tied to inventors like James Watt and Richard Arkwright to fiscal revolutions exemplified by the Glorious Revolution fiscal reforms, the South Sea Bubble, and the development of institutions like the Bank of England and the Dutch East India Company. Sections explore demographic crises such as the Great Famine of 1315–1317, technological diffusion exemplified by the Spinning Jenny and the steam engine, and trade networks centered on ports like Antwerp, Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam. The macrostructure engages with monetary regimes including the Gold standard, the Bretton Woods system, and the financial episodes typified by the Long Depression and the Great Depression.
Editors commissioned specialists affiliated with departments at University College London, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Cambridge, and University of Manchester who had worked on topics connected to archives such as the British Library, the Archives Nationales (France), the Austrian State Archives, and the Vatican Secret Archives. Contributors included demographic historians trained in the quantitative schools associated with University of Groningen and University of Edinburgh, as well as institutionalists influenced by Kenneth Arrow and Ronald Coase. Editorial methodology combined narrative synthesis with cliometric techniques used by scholars from Rutgers University, Bielefeld University, and University of Helsinki, employing source bases from mercantile records tied to houses like the Medici, the Fugger family, and the Hanoverian chancery.
The series was received across forums including the Economic History Society, the International Economic History Association, and the Royal Economic Society, and reviewed in periodicals such as those published by Oxford University Press and Palgrave Macmillan. It influenced curricula at institutions such as King's College London and University of St Andrews and was cited by policymakers working within agencies like the European Commission, International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. Its interpretations entered debates alongside works by Fernand Braudel, Eric Hobsbawm, Milton Friedman, and Jan de Vries regarding industrialization, urbanization, and comparative growth.
Scholars associated with schools at Princeton University, Yale University, and Northwestern University have debated the series' balance between narrative history and cliometrics, critiquing emphases that echo controversies around authors such as Gregory Clark and Deirdre McCloskey. Critics from strands influenced by World-systems theory and scholars like Immanuel Wallerstein argued the series underemphasized non-European connections with polities such as the Mughal Empire and the Qing dynasty. Debates also referenced methodological disputes familiar from controversies over works by Fernand Braudel and E. P. Thompson, and invoked discussions occurring in venues like Past & Present and The Economic History Review.
Category:Historiography of Europe