The invisible hand? : how market economies have emerged and declined since AD 500
Bas Van Bavel
- Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press, c2016.
- ix, 330 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Machine generated contents note: 1.Introduction: Markets in Economics and History 1.1.Markets, Their Historiography, and Some Major Assumptions Some Assumptions and Received Wisdom 1.2.On the Modernity of Markets: The Verdict of Recent Historical Research Recent Studies on the Rise of Factor Markets Recent Historical Literature on the Relation between Markets, Wealth, and Freedom 1.3.A New Approach to Markets: This Book Elements Investigated in the Book 1.4.Cases of Market Economies Possible Cases of Market Economies The Cases Investigated in this Book 2.Markets in an Early Medieval Empire: Iraq, 500-1100 2.1.The Rough Contours of Economic Development 2.2.Social Revolts and the Growth of Factor Markets from the Fifth to the Mid-Eighth Century Social Revolts and Societal Balance Land and Lease Markets Labourers and Labour Markets Credit and Financial Markets Contents note continued: 2.3.Dynamic Factor Markets and Growing Social Inequality from the Late Eighth to the Tenth Century Accumulation and Effects in Land and Lease Markets Free Labourers and Growing Number of Slaves 2.4.Long-Run Effects on Economy, Politics, and Society from the Ninth to the Eleventh Century The Chronology of Economic Decline Causes of the Economic Decline 3.Markets in Medieval City-States: The Centre and North of Italy, 1000-1500 3.1.The Emergence of Factor Markets in the Eleventh to Thirteenth Century A Context of Relative Equity The Early Rise of Land and Lease Markets The Early Rise of Labour and Financial Markets 3.2.Organization, Context, and Effects of Dynamic Factor Markets, Early Fourteenth to Mid-Fifteenth Century The Mezzadria System Increasingly Distorted Labour Markers and Coercion of Labour 3.3.The Changing Social Context of Markets: Power and Property in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries Contents note continued: The Growth of Burgher Landownership Growing Financial Markets and Inequality of Wealth Distribution Impotent Revolts, Professional Soldiers, and Growing Power of Market Elites 3.4.Effects on Economy, Agriculture, and Demography The Regional Variations Wealth and Elite Dominance 4.Markets in Late Medieval and Early Modern Principalities: The Low Countries, 1100-1800 4.1.The Social Context before and during the Emergence of Factor Markets, from the Twelfth to the Fourteenth Century 4.2.The Emergence of Factor Markets in the Thirteenth to Fifteenth Century Labour Markets Money, Credit, and Capital Markets 4.3.The Functioning and Effects of Dynamic Factor Markets from the Fifteenth to the Mid-Sixteenth Century Accumulation through Land and Lease Markets The Further Growth of Labour and Capital Markets The Social Effects of Extensive and Dynamic Factor Markets Contents note continued: 4.4.Effects of Dynamic Factor Markets from the Mid-Sixteenth to the Seventeenth Century Growing Economic Inequality Growing Political Inequality Stagnation of the Economy and Decline of Welfare 5.Epilogue -Markets in Modern States: England, the United States, and Western Europe, 1500-2000 5.1.England and Its North American Colonies, 1500-1800 The Rise of Factor Markets to Dominance The Social and Political Context Dominant Factor Markets The American Colonies England as the Leading Economy 5.2.The Decline of England and the Rise of the United States, 1800-1950 Inequality, Counter-Reaction, and Stagnation in England Freedom, Equity, and Rising Factor Markets in the United States 5.3.The Western World Brought in Sync and Dominated by Factor Markets, since 1950 Northwest Europe Brought in Sync with the American Cycle Contents note continued: 6.Conclusion: The Fundamental Incompatibility of Market Economies with Long-Run Prosperity, Equity, and Broad Participation in Decision Making 6.1.The Cycle The Positive Phases of the Cycle A Closer Inspection of the Negative Phases of the Cycle 6.2.The Cycle, Its Specific Aspects, and Theories of Long-Run Development Market Economies and Inequality Possible Counterbalances and the Role of the State Financial Markets and Capitalism Rise and Decline 6.3.The Cycle in Time and Space Early Market Economies and Their Decline Urban Centres and Rural Hinterlands Regional Differences The Growing Scale and Influence of Market Cores.
The Invisible Hand' offers a radical departure from the conventional wisdom of economists and economic historians, by showing that 'factor markets' and the economies dominated by them - the market economies - are not modern, but have existed at various times in the past. This work analyses three major, pre-industrial examples of successful market economies in western Eurasia: Iraq in the early Middle Ages, Italy in the high Middle Ages, and the Low Countries in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. It then draws parallels to England and the United States in the modern period. These areas successively saw a rapid rise of factor markets and the associated dynamism, followed by stagnation, which enables an in-depth investigation of the causes and results of this process.