"Western Europe rose in global power during the early modern period as overseas expansion opened new trade routes. At the same time, intense rivalries pitted European states against one another in recurrent wars. Henning Hillmann examines the merchant community of Saint-Malo, Brittany, a key...

What mechanisms account for the long-run differences in economic development across historical settings? Current scholarship has renewed the argument that institutions are essential for promoting market transactions, industrialization, trade and economic growth. In particular, recent work in...

Using novel quantitative historical data on 2,483 British privateering cruises, we show that state-licensed commerce raiding by merchants was not only a popular and potentially flourishing business, but also effective in harming enemy trade during the long eighteenth century (1688-1815). Why,...

Emergent economies suffer from underdeveloped market infrastructures and insufficient public institutions to enforce contract commitments and property rights. Informal reputation-based arrangements may substitute for government enforcement but they require close-knit networks that enable...