Economic history of Europe (1000 AD–present)
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This article covers the Economic history of Europe from about 1000 AD to the present. For the context, see History of Europe.
Middle Ages
Agriculture
Early in the first millennium, improvements in technique and technology began to emerge. Monasteries spread throughout Europe and became important centers for the collection of knowledge related to agriculture and forestry. The
By 900 AD in Europe, developments in
Watermills were initially developed by the Romans, but were improved throughout the Middle Ages, along with windmills, and were provided the power needed to grind grains into flour, cut wood and process flax and wool, and irrigate fields.[4]
Field crops included wheat, rye, barley and oats; they were used for bread and animal fodder. Peas, beans, and
Famines and plagues
There were episodes of famines, and also of deadly epidemics. Soil exhaustion, overpopulation, wars, diseases and climate change caused hundreds of famines in medieval Europe.[9][10] Around 1300, centuries of European prosperity and growth came to a halt. Famines such as Great Famine of 1315–1317 slowly weakened the populace. Few people died of starvation because the weakest had already succumbed to a routine disease they otherwise would have survived. A plague like the Black Death killed its victims in one locality in a matter of days or even hours, reducing the population of some areas by half as many survivors fled. Kishlansky reports:
- The Black Death touched every aspect of life, hastening a process of social, economic, and cultural transformation already underway.... Fields were abandoned, workplaces stood idle, international trade was suspended. Traditional bonds of kinship, village and even religion were broken and the horrors of death, flight, and failed expectations. "People cared no more for dead men that we care for dead goats," wrote one survivor.[11]
Depopulation caused labor to become scarcer; the survivors were better paid and peasants could drop some of the burdens of feudalism. There was also social unrest; France and England experienced serious peasant risings: the
Technology
A major technological advance came in long-distance navigation, from the 8th century to the 12th century.
Crafts and urban growth
From the 11th century to the 13th century, farmers and small-scale producers of
Spinning, weaving, sewing and cutting were considered women's work until the mid-12th century when men began taking over some positions with more sophisticated industrial structures and technologies. In the large cities of Northern France, centers of medieval textile production, the shift to male dominated production started even earlier, in the 11th century, when the
The economic system of this era was merchant capitalism. The core of this system was in merchant houses, backed by financiers acting as intermediaries between simple commodity producers. This system continued until it was supplanted by industrial capitalism in the 18th century.
Economic activity over a broad geographic range began to intensify in both northern and southern Europe in the 13th century.
Trade flourished in Italy (albeit not united, but rather ruled by different princes in different city-states), particularly by the 13th century. Leading the trade in Mediterranean Europe were traders from the port cities of Genoa and Venice. The wealth generated in Italy fueled the Italian Renaissance.
Hanseatic League
In cities linked to the North Sea and the Baltic Sea a trade monopoly developed in the Hanseatic League. This facilitated the growth of trade among cities in close proximity to these two seas. Long-distance trade in the Baltic intensified, as the major trading towns came together in the Hanseatic League, under the leadership of Lübeck.
The League was a business alliance of trading cities and their guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe and flourished from the 1200 to 1500, and continued with lesser importance after that. The chief cities were Cologne on the Rhine River, Hamburg and Bremen on the North Sea, and Lübeck on the Baltic.[14]
The Hanseatic cities each had its own legal system and a degree of political autonomy.[15] The
France
The collapse of the
Agricultural output began to increase in the
The 13 decades from 1335 to 1450 spawned a series of economic catastrophes, with bad harvests, famines, plagues and wars that overwhelmed four generations of Frenchmen. The population had expanded, making the food supply more precarious. The Black Death of 1347 was echoed by several smaller plagues at 15 year intervals. The French and English armies during the
Early modern Europe: 1500–1800
The
France
Before 1800, France was the most populated country in Europe, with a population of 17 million in 1400, 20 million in the 17th century, and 28 million in 1789.[citation needed] The 17th and 18th centuries saw a steady increase in urban populations, although France remained a profoundly rural country, with less than 10% of the population located in urban areas. Paris was the largest city in Europe, in 1754, with 650,000 people by the end of the 18th century.[19]
Agricultural production of a variety of food items expanded: olive oil, wine, cider,
The introduction of the high-temperature forge in northeast France led to mineral mining, although France had to import copper, bronze, tin, and lead. Mines and glasswork benefited greatly from royal tax exemptions for a period of about twenty years. Silk production (introduced in Tours in 1470 and in Lyon in 1536) enabled the French to join a thriving market, but French products remained of lesser quality than Italian silks. Wool production was widespread, as was the production of linen and of hemp (both major export products).
By the middle of the 16th century, France's demographic growth, its increased demand for consumer goods, and its rapid influx of gold and silver from Africa and the Americas led to inflation (grain became five times as expensive from 1520 to 1600), and wage stagnation. Although many land-owning peasants and enterprising merchants had been able to grow rich during the boom, the standard of living fell greatly for rural peasants, who were forced to deal with bad harvests at the same time. This led to reduced
Meanwhile, France's military ventures in Italy and disastrous civil wars demanded huge sums of cash, which were raised with through the taille and other taxes. The taille, which was levied mainly on the peasantry, increased from 2.5 million livres in 1515 to 6 million after 1551, and by 1589 the taille had reached a record 21 million livres. Financial crises hit the royal household repeatedly, and so in 1523, Francis I established a government bond system in Paris, the "rentes sur l'Hôtel de Ville".
Great Britain
Mercantilism and empire
The basis of the British Empire was founded in the age of
Mercantilism was the basic policy imposed by Britain on its colonies.[21] Mercantilism meant that the government and the merchants became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires. The government protected its merchants—and kept others out—by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries in order to maximize exports from and minimize imports to the realm. The government had to fight smuggling—which became a favorite American technique in the 18th century to circumvent the restrictions on trading with the French, Spanish or Dutch.[22] The goal of mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The government spent much of its revenue on a superb Royal Navy, which not only protected the British colonies but threatened the colonies of the other empires, and sometimes seized them. Thus the British Navy captured New Amsterdam (New York) in 1664. The colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the goal was to enrich the mother country.[23]
Industrial Revolution: 1750s–1840s
The Industrial Revolution brought factories to Europe, especially England and Scotland, 1750s to 1830s. France and the U.S. experienced its industrial revolution in the early 19th century; Germany in the 19th century; and to Russia in the early-mid 20th century.
In Britain, the Industrial Revolution was a period of economic transformation from the 1750s to the 1830s, characterized by the growth of a new system comprising factories, railroads, coal mining and business enterprises using new technologies that it sponsored. The new system operated first on textiles, then spread to other sectors and by the mid 19th century totally transformed the British economy and society, setting up sustained growth; it spread to parts of America and Europe and modernized the world economy. Although localized to certain parts of Britain (the London area was not included), its impact was felt worldwide on migration and trade, society and politics, on cities and countryside, and affected the remotest areas. The growth rate in the British GDP was 1.5% per year (1770–1815), doubling to 3.0% (1815–1831).[24]
Success in building larger, more efficient steam engines after 1790 meant that the cost of energy fell steadily. Entrepreneurs found uses for stationary engines in turning the machines in a factory or the pumps at a mine, while mobile engines were put into locomotives and ships (where they turned paddles or, later, propellers). The use of water power was growing too, so that in 1830 steam mills and water mills were about equal (at 165,000 horsepower each); by 1879 Britain obtained 2.1 million horsepower from steam engines, and 230,000 from water.[25]
During the early industrial revolution and the transition from an agricultural economy to an industrial one, major conflicts arose between agricultural landholders and capitalists. Landholders did not benefit as much as industrialists from educating their workers (and thus increasing the human capital of their region). Educated agricultural workers were not significantly more productive than uneducated ones, and moreover, "educated workers have more incentives to migrate to urban, industrial areas than their less educated counterparts." For that reason, less industrialized regions where large land owners held more political power than industrialists, tended to have less educated workers than industrialized ones. The unequal distribution of land therefore has a negative correlation with the development of human capital.[26]
Belgium
No one expected that Belgium-seemingly a "sluggish" and "culturally dormant" bastion of traditionalism-would leap– to the forefront of the industrial revolution on the Continent.[27] Nevertheless, Belgium was the second country, after Britain, in which the industrial revolution took place and it set the pace for all of continental Europe, while leaving the Netherlands behind.[28]
Industrialization took place in Wallonia (French-speaking southern Belgium), starting in the middle of the 1820s, and especially after 1830. The availability of cheap coal was a main factor that attracted entrepreneurs. Numerous works comprising coke blast furnaces as well as puddling and rolling mills were built in the coal mining areas around Liège and Charleroi. The leader was a transplanted Englishman John Cockerill. His factories integrated all stages of production, from engineering to the supply of raw materials, as early as 1825.[29] By 1830, when iron became important the Belgium coal industry had long been established, and used steam-engines for pumping. Coal was sold to local mills and railways as well as to France and Prussia. The textile industry, based on cotton and flax, employed about half of the industrial workforce for much of the industrial period. Ghent was the premier industrial city in Belgium until the 1880s, when the center of growth moved to Liège, with its steel industry.[30]
Cheap and readily available coal attracted firms producing metals and glass, both of which required considerable amounts of coal, and so regions around coal fields became highly industrialised. The Sillon industriel (Industrial Valley), and in particular the Pays Noir around Charleroi, were the center of the steel industry until the 1940s.
Railways
The growth of industry soon brought to light the need for a better system of transportation. While canals and roads did improve, they were soon overshadowed by a means of transportation that held great promise: the railroads. The railroads may have been that most important factor of the industrial revolution. Railways had existed as early as 1500, but in 1700s the primitive wooden rails were replaced with wrought iron. These new rails enabled horses to pull even heavier loads with relative ease. But dependence on horsepower did not last for long. In 1804, the first steam-powered locomotive pulled 10 tons of ore and 70 people at 5 miles per hour. This new technology improved dramatically; locomotives soon reached speeds of 50 miles per hour. While the railroads revolutionized transportation, they further contributed to the growth of the industrial revolution by causing a great increase in the demand for iron and coal.[31]
Iron and steel
Throughout the Middle Ages iron was smelted using charcoal, however in the eighteenth century, new methods of iron production were discovered; the resulting iron was of higher quality than ever before. These advances, such as the process developed by Henry Cort in the 1780s, greatly encouraged the use of machinery in other industries.
Iron was so durable that it became the preferred metal for tools and equipment until displaced by steel after 1860.[32] Britain had iron ores but lacked a process to produce iron in quantity until in 1760 John Smeaton invented a blast furnace that could smelt iron both quickly and cheaply. His invention used an air-blast produced by a fan run by a waterwheel. In 1783, Henry Cort introduced the puddling, or reverberatory furnace, in which the final product was a pasty solid instead of a liquid. It was rolled into balls, squeezed and rolled to eliminate the impurities, or slag. The result was malleable iron in large quantities. The greatest of the early ironmasters, John Wilkinson (1728–1808) invented new machinery to process the iron. In 1779, the first cast-iron bridge was constructed across the Severn; in 1790 the first iron ship was launched. By 1830, Britain was producing 700,000 tons of iron a year; the amount quadrupled a quarter-century later, with centers in Scotland, South Wales, and Staffordshire. Railway builders were the chief customer. In 1847–48 they bought 3 million tons for rolling stock, bridge building, and station building for 2000 new miles, plus the demands of the 3000 previously built miles of railway.[33]
Germany between the wars
After the war, Germany was supposed to pay all of the war reparations according to the Treaty of Versailles. The policy angered the Germans and caused deep resentment, especially of the sort that the Nazis capitalized upon. However the sums actually paid were not large, and were financed by loans from New York in the Dawes Plan. Payments ended in 1931, but in the 1950s West Germany did pay all the reparations. There was an overwhelming inflation in 1923 caused by the government's pumping out paper money. The reconstruction period was based on private investment and demand. When the stock market crashed in 1929, the investors who had been financing Germany pulled out, crippling its economy as unemployment soared to 25%.[34]
World War II
The home front covers the activities of the civilians in a nation at war. World War II was a total war that was ultimately decided in the factories and workplaces of the Allies of World War II, which had a much better performance than the Axis powers. Indeed, Germany and Japan depended as much or more on plunder of conquered territories than they did on their own production. Life on the home front during World War II was a significant part of the war effort for all participants and had a major impact on the outcome of the war. Governments became involved with new issues such as rationing, manpower allocation, home defense, evacuation in the face of air raids, and response to occupation by an enemy power. The morale and psychology of the people responded to leadership and propaganda. Typically women were mobilized to an unprecedented degree. The success in mobilizing economic output was a major factor in supporting combat operations. All of the powers involved had learned from their experiences on the Home front during World War I and tried to use its lessons and avoid its possible sources of error. The home front engaged in several activities to help the British army and navy, including taking down metal fences and gates to replace them with stone or wood. The metal was then melted down, and used for battle ships or planes.[35][36]
The major powers devoted 50–61 percent of their total GDP to munitions production. The Allies produced about three times as much in munitions as the Axis powers.
Country/Alliance | Year | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1935–39 ave | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | Total 1939–44 | |
U.S. | 0.3 | 1.5 | 4.5 | 20.0 | 38.0 | 42.0 | 106.3 |
Britain | 0.5 | 3.5 | 6.5 | 9.0 | 11.0 | 11.0 | 41.5 |
U.S.S.R. |
1.6 | 5.0 | 8.5 | 11.5 | 14.0 | 16.0 | 56.6 |
Allies Total | 2.4 | 10.0 | 20.0 | 41.5 | 64.5 | 70.5 | 204.4 |
Germany | 2.4 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 8.5 | 13.5 | 17.0 | 53.4 |
Japan | 0.4 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 4.5 | 6.0 | 16.9 |
Axis Total |
2.8 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 11.5 | 18.0 | 23.0 | 70.3 |
Source: Goldsmith data in Harrison (1988) p. 172
Country | Year | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1937 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | |
Japan | 100 | 107 | 109 | 111 | 108 | 99 | 93 | 78 |
Germany | 100 | 108 | 117 | 108 | 105 | 95 | 94 | 85 |
US | 100 | 96 | 103 | 108 | 116 | 115 | 118 | 122 |
Source: Jerome B Cohen, Japan's Economy in War and Reconstruction (1949) p. 354
Post–World War II
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program or ERP) was a system of American economic aid to Western Europe 1948–51. It played a major role in the economic recovery, modernization, and unification of Europe. In three years the ERP gave away $12.4 billion (about 5% of the 1948 American GDP of $270 billion) for modernizing the economic and financial systems and rebuilding the industrial and human capital of war-torn Europe, including Britain, Germany, France, Italy and smaller nations. It required each government to set up a national economic plan, and for the countries to cooperate in terms of financial and trade flows. The money was not a loan and there was no repayment. Washington spent such vast sums because it was believed to be cheaper than the rearmament that isolationism or rollback would entail. In the long run, the logic went, a prosperous Europe would be more peaceful, and would make its main trading partner, the US, more prosperous. Stalin refused to allow any of his satellites to participate, the plan became exclusive to western Europe. However, the US extended a similar financial aid program to Japan at the same time.[37]
Historians reject the idea that it only miraculously revived Europe, since the evidence shows that a general recovery was already under way thanks to other aid programs, chiefly from the United States. Bradford De Long and Barry Eichengreen conclude it was, " History's Most Successful Structural Adjustment Program." They state:
- It was not large enough to have significantly accelerated recovery by financing investment, aiding the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, or easing commodity bottlenecks. We argue, however, that the Marshall Plan did play a major role in setting the stage for post-World War II Western Europe's rapid growth. The conditions attached to Marshall Plan aid pushed European political economy in a direction that left its post World War II "mixed economies" with more "market" and less "controls" in the mix.[38]
Historians also emphasize its political impact. The powerful combination of ERP and NATO (1949) gave Europe the assurance of America's commitment to the security and prosperity of Western Europe, and helped the recipients avoid the pessimism and despair that characterized the aftermath of World War I. The Marshall Plan thus created in Europe an unstoppable "revolution of rising expectations," the striking phrase coined in 1950 by Harlan Cleveland, an economist and senior ERP official.[39][38]
European Coal and Steel Community
Six European nations, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands took a step toward economic integration with the formation of a
Industrial decline
The decades from the 1960s saw an economic decline in the output of the more developed nations of Europe, particularly in France and the UK. These nations' positions in output of refined raw materials, e.g. steel, and in finished goods fell in contrast to Asian countries. Several Asian nations made use of
The Euro
Introduction of the Euro
The
Countries involved
The nations involved in the initial treaty were Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. These nations agreed in principle to the
See also
- Economic history of Africa
- Economic history of Britain
- Economic history of France
- Economic history of Germany
- Economic history of Greece and the Greek world
- Economic history of Italy
- Economic history of the Netherlands (1500–1815)
- Economic history of Portugal
- Economic history of Russia
- Economic history of Scotland
- Economic history of Spain
- Economic history of Sweden
- Economic history of Venice
- Economic history of the world
- Economic history of World War I
- Economy of Europe
- History of economic thought
- Price revolution
- Social history
References
- ^ Jourdan, Pablo. "Medieval Horticulture/Agriculture". Ohio State University. Archived from the original on 2013-04-14. Retrieved 2013-04-24.
- ^ Janick, Jules (2008). "Islamic Influences on Western Agriculture" (PDF). Purdue University. Retrieved 2013-05-23.
- ^ a b Backer, Patricia. "Part 1 – Medieval European history". History of Technology. San Jose State University. Archived from the original on 2015-03-04. Retrieved 2013-04-24.
- ISBN 9780786450527.
- .
- ISBN 978-0-521-30412-2.
- ISBN 978-0-19-924776-9.
- ISBN 978-0-19-866262-4.
- ISBN 978-1400822133.
- ^ Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Times of feast, times of famine: a history of climate since the year 1000 (1972)
- ^ Mark Kishlansky et al. Civilization in the West: Volume 1 to 1715 (5th ed. 2003) p. 316
- ^ Norman Cantor, The civilization of the Middle Ages (1993) p. 480.
- ^ Owen-Crocker, Gale; Netherton, Robin, eds. (2006). Medieval Clothing and Textiles Volume 2. p. 62.
- ^ James Westfall Thompson,Economic and Social History of Europe in the Later Middle Ages (1300–1530) (1931) pp. 146–79
- ^ Clive Day (1914). A History of Commerce. Longmans, Green, and Company. pp. 252ff.
- ^ Cornelius Walford, "An Outline History of the Hanseatic League, More Particularly in Its Bearings upon English Commerce," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 9, (1881), pp. 82–136 in JSTOR
- ^ Roger Price, A Concise History of France (1993) pp. 41–46
- ^ Calico (from Calicut), muslin and chintz, for example.
- ^
Price, Roger (1993). A Concise History of France. Cambridge Concise Histories (3 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (published 2014). p. 29. ISBN 9781107729124. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
Paris [...] by the middle of the seventeenth century had a population of c. 550.000, and by the end of the following century this had grown to 650,000 [...].
- ^ William Doyle, ed. The Oxford Handbook of the Ancien Régime (2012)
- ISBN 9781419107078.
- ^ George Otto Trevelyan (1899). The American Revolution vol 1. pp. 128ff.
- ^
Nester, William R. (2000). The Great Frontier War: Britain, France, and the Imperial Struggle for North America, 1607–1755. Praeger. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-275-96772-7.
- ^ C.H. Feinstein, "National Statistics, 1760–1920", in C.H. Feinstein and S. Pollard, (eds.), Studies in Capital Formation in the United Kingdom, 1750–1920 (1988) table X.
- S2CID 153979233. Crafts also estimates that all technological innovations, including steam engines, accounted for about 18% of British economic growth from 1780 to 1830, and 31% from 1830 to 1870.
- ^ Baten, Jörg; Hippe, Ralph (2017). "Geography, land inequality and regional numeracy in Europe in historical perspective". Journal of Economic Growth.
- .
- JSTOR 2116987.
- ISBN 978-0-7546-3390-7.
- ISBN 978-0-8476-8526-4.
- ISBN 978-0-333-33000-5.
- ^ Small amounts of steel were produced before the 1860s, but it was five times stronger than cast iron.
- ^ John Clapham, An Economic History of Modern Britain (1952) 1:425–28
- ^ Kruedener, Jurgen Baron von. Economic Crisis and Political Collapse: The Weimar Republic. (1990) pp. 4–30.
- ^ I.C.B. Dear, and M.R.D. Foot, eds. The Oxford Companion to World War II (1995), has short articles on every country.
- ^ Mark Harrison, ed. The economics of World War II: six great powers in international comparison (Cambridge University Press, 2000)
- ^ Martin Schain, ed., The Marshall Plan: Fifty Years After (2001).
- ^ ISBN 978-0-262-04136-2 – via Google Books.
- ^ Michael J. Hogan, The Marshall Plan: America, Britain, and the Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1947–1952 (1987).
- ^ Louis Lister, Europe's Coal and Steel Community: an experiment in economic union (1960).
- ^ "Introduction - The Euro Task Force". Archived from the original on 2000-06-01.
- ^ Why the Euro?
- ^ European Commission – Economic and Financial Affairs
- ^ The Euro
Further reading
- Birnie, Arthur. An economic history of Europe, 1760-1939 (1939) online
- Cipolla, Carlo M., ed. The Fontana Economic history of Europe (10 vol 1973–80) title list
- Clough, Shepard Bancroft and Charles Woolsey Cole. Economic History of Europe (1952) 920 pp online edition
- Heaton, Herbert. Economic History Of Europe (1948) online
- Jones, E. L. The European Miracle: Environments, economies and geopolitics in the history of Europe and Asia (2nd edition; 1987). excerpt and text search
- Kellenbenz, Hermann, and Gerhard Benecke. The Rise of the European Economy: An Economic History of Continental Europe from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century (1976) online
- Persson, Karl Gunnar. An Economic History of Europe: Knowledge, Institutions and Growth, 600 to the Present (2010) excerpt and text search
Since 1750
- Aldcroft, Derek H. The European Economy: 1914–2000 328 pp. (2001) online edition
- Ashton, T. S. The Industrial Revolution, 1760–1830 (1948) online edition
- Eichengreen, Barry J.The European Economy since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond (2008)
- Farnie, Douglas Antony, and David J. Jeremy. The Fibre That Changed the World: The Cotton Industry in International Perspective, 1600–1990s (2004)
- The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present 1969 online at ACLS e-books
- Landes, David S. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor(1998)
- M. M. Postan, eds. The Cambridge Economic History of Europe from the Decline of the Roman Empire, Vol. 7, Pt. 1: The Industrial Economies: Capital, Labour and Enterprise, Britain, France, Germany and Scandinavia, (1978)
- Milward, Alan S. and S. B. Saul. The Economic Development of Continental Europe 1780–1870 (2nd ed. 1979), 552 pp
- Milward, Alan S. and S. B. Saul. The Development of the Economies of Continental Europe: 1850–1914 (1977)
- Mokyr, Joel. The lever of riches: technological creativity and economic progress (Oxford University Press, 1990) online edition
- Rider, Christine, ed. Encyclopedia of the Age of the Industrial Revolution, 1700–1920 2 vol (2007)
- Rosenberg, Nathan, and L. E. Birdzell. How the West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation of the Industrial World 1986 online edition
- Snooks, Graeme Donald, ed. Was the Industrial Revolution Necessary? 1994. online edition
- Stearns, Peter N.The Industrial Revolution in World History (1998)
- Thorp, William Long. Business Annals: United States, England, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Netherlands, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, Australia, India, Japan, China (1926) capsule summary of conditions in each country for each quarter-year 1790–1925
- Woytinsky, W.S.World Population and Production: Trends and Outlook (1953). 1268 pp. tables, maps, analysis covering most industrial powers, 1800–1950
- Woytinsky, W.S. World commerce and governments;: Trends and outlook (1955), 907 pp
National studies
- Ashworth, William. An economic history of England 1870–1939 (Routledge, 2013)
- Cameron, Rondo. France and the Economic Development of Europe, 1800–1914: Conquests of Peace and Seeds of War (1961), awide-ranging economic and business history
- Caron, François. An economic history of modern France (2nd ed. Routledge, 2014)
- Clapham, John. A concise economic history of Britain. (1949), Abridged version of three volume history
- Deane, P. and Cole, W. A. British Economic Growth, 1688–1959: Trends and Structure, (2nd ed 1967)
- Gregory, Paul R. Before Command: An Economic History of Russia from Emancipation to the First Five-Year Plan (Princeton University Press, 2014)
- Lynch, Frances. France and the International Economy: from Vichy to the Treaty of Rome (Routledge, 2006)
- Mantoux, Paul. The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century: An Outline of the Beginnings of the Modern Factory System in England (1928, 1961) online edition
- Mathias, Peter. The first industrial nation: The economic history of Britain 1700–1914 (Routledge, 2013)
- Price, Roger. An economic history of modern France, 1730–1914 (Macmillan, 1981)
- Stolper, Gustav, Karl Häuser, and Knut Borchardt. The German economy, 1870 to the present (1967)
- Toniolo, Gianni. An Economic History of Liberal Italy, 1850–1918 (1990)
- Toniolo, Gianni, ed. The Oxford Handbook of the Italian Economy since Unification (Oxford University Press, 2013) 785 pp. online review
- Usher, Abbott Payson. An Introduction to the Industrial History of England (1920) 529 pages online edition
- Zamagni, Vera. The Economic History of Italy, 1860–1990 (1993) 413 pp. ISBN 0-19-828773-9.
Middle Ages
- Hodgett, Gerald A. A social and economic history of medieval Europe (Routledge, 2013)
- Pirenne, Henri. Economic and social history of medieval Europe (1936) online
- Postan, Michael. Mediaeval Trade and Finance (2002).
- Pounds, N.J.G. An economic history of medieval Europe (1974) online
- Pounds, Norman John Greville. An historical geography of Europe: 450 B.C.–A.D. 1330 (1973) online edition
- Thompson, James Westfall. Economic and social history of Europe in the later Middle Ages (1300–1530) (1931) online
Primary sources
- Cave, Roy C. and Herbert H. Coulson, eds. a Source Book for Medieval Economic History (1965) online
- Pollard, Sidney and Colin Holmes, eds. Documents of European Economic History, Volume 1: The Process of Industrialization 1750–1870 (1968)
- Pollard, Sidney and Colin Holmes, eds. Documents of European Economic History Volume 2 Industrial Power and National Rivalry 1870–1914 (1972)
- Pollard, Sidney and Colin Holmes, eds. Documents of European Economic History Volume 3 The End of the Old Europe 1914–1939 (1973)
External links
- EHE – An Economic History of Europe, webpage linking to resources for economic historians of Europe. Contains links to major databases, technology descriptions, examples of use of data, a forum for economic historians.