THE EVOLUTION OF MARKETS IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE,1350-1800: A STUDY OF GRAIN PRICES

This paper attempts to establish the trend of market development in Europe in thecenturies before the industrial revolution, by applying three different measures ofmarket integration to a compilation of monthly and annual price data. In contrast tomuch of the existing work, which suggests that markets generally improved duringthis time, the findings propose that markets were as well integrated in the fifteenthcentury as in the late eighteenth century. In between these two times, markets arefound to have suffered a severe contraction. These results provide a challenge to ourcurrent thoughts on economic growth....