The world in which we live and the problems we face cannot be understood without referring to that momentous upheaval known as the Industrial Revolution. Yet the Industrial Revolution was only the final phase, the coherent outcome of a historical development which took place in Europe over the first seven centuries of our now expiring millennium. The purpose of this book is to offer an up-to-date and fully documented summary of the human developments from which our world, with all its blessings and all its woes, eventually emerged.
The book is therefore intended for both students and general readers; although focused on social and economic problems, its approach is essentially interdisciplinary. This double ambivalence may help to explain some of its peculiarities.
Style and exposition have been kept at a reasonably simple level but no efforts have been spared to provide the reader with precise references, abundant statistical material and a wealth of bibliographical information. Disconcerting technicalities have been eliminated without sacrificing scholarly accuracy. At the same time the logical tools of economic and social analysis have been clearly spelled out rather than taken for granted or hidden away in. the tissue of the narrative. This, it is hoped, will help the economics student to trace the connections between economic theory and economic history, while acquainting the layman with some of the basic tools of contemporary social sciences.
The book has been organized in two parts. In Part lour analysis is essentially static. It aims to clarify the way in which the society and economy of preindustrial Europe functioned, while emphasizing certain constant characteristics of that society and that economy. Part 11 illustrates the changes which took place within that framework and which gradually transformed Europe from a primitive, uninteresting and underdeveloped corner of the world, under constant threat from its more powerful neighbors, into a dynamic, highly developed and creative society which came to establish undisputed political, cultural, and economic predominance all over the globe.
Quite naturally, the nature of our inquiry is molded by values, mentalities, and beliefs which are peculiar to our own age and society. When another society is under scrutiny, questions which bear little or no relation to the philosophy, values, and beliefs of that society inevitabiy pose difficulties. It may be that we are interested in the size of the population, the patterns of consumption or the level of production of, let us say, the province of Reims in France at the beginning of this millennium. What the documents relating to that area give us, however, is detailed information on miracles performed by St Gibrian. Because the documentation left by the past reflects the interests and the values of the past, many of the problems raised in the following pages can receive only tentative or approximate answers. The answers become more precise for centuries closer to our own, as people began to ask the same questions that we ask.
This new edition has given me the opportunity to include findings not available when this book was first published and to revise material based on the suggestions of readers and reviewers. The principal changes are in the discussions of demography and agricultural economics and include the introduction of new material on the history of the northern Netherlands and on Italian manufacturing and trading.
Professor Marcella Kooy and Miss Alide Kooy translated the original Italian text into English. Mr Robert E. Kehoe carefully edited the book and checked on its progress. All additional material included in this third English edition has been translated by Christopher Woodall.
Berkeley, California