Sheilagh Ogilvie

Institutions and European Trade (eBook, PDF)

Merchant Guilds, 1000-1800

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

What was the role of merchant guilds in the medieval and early modern economy? Does their wide prevalence and long survival mean they were efficient institutions that benefited the whole economy? Or did merchant guilds simply offer an effective way for the rich and powerful to increase their wealth, at the expense of outsiders, customers and society as a whole? These privileged associations of businessmen were key institutions in the European economy from 1000 to 1800. Historians debate merchant guilds' role in the Commercial Revolution, economists use them to support theories about institutions and development, and policymakers view them as prime examples of social capital, with important lessons for modern economies. Sheilagh Ogilvie's magisterial new history of commercial institutions shows how scrutinizing merchant guilds can help us understand which types of institution made trade grow, why institutions exist, and how corporate privileges affect economic efficiency and human well-being.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 17. März 2011
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781139006033
• Artikelnr.: 38279809

Autorenporträt

Sheilagh Ogilvie is Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of the British Academy. Her prize-winning publications include State Corporatism and Proto-Industry: The Württemberg Black Forest 1590¿1797 (Cambridge, 1997, winner of the Gyorgy Ranki Prize 1999) and A Bitter Living: Women, Markets, and Social Capital in Early Modern Germany (2003, winner of the René Kuczynski Prize 2004).

Inhaltsangabe

1. Merchant guilds, efficiency, and social capital
2. What was a merchant guild?
3. Local merchant guilds
4. Alien merchant guilds and companies
5. Merchant guilds and rulers
6. Commercial security
7. Contract enforcement
8. Principal-agent problems
9. Information
10. Price volatility
11. Institutions, social capital and economic development.

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1. Merchant guilds, efficiency, and social capital; 2. What was a merchant guild?; 3. Local merchant guilds; 4. Alien merchant guilds and companies; 5. Merchant guilds and rulers; 6. Commercial security; 7. Contract enforcement; 8. Principal-agent problems; 9. Information; 10. Price volatility; 11. Institutions, social capital and economic development.

Rezensionen

'Sheilagh Ogilvie shows yet again the brilliant scientific results to be achieved from combining an economist's clarity of mind with a historian's respect for how it actually was. She demolishes the Panglossian story put forward by the New Institutionalists, reminding us that for guilds as for manors and taxes and trade a proud power could trump efficiency. Elegantly written, decisively argued, her book is an instant classic.' Deirdre McCloskey, University of Illinois, Chicago