This review essay discusses and appraises Douglas Allen’s The Institutional Revolution (2011) as a way of reflecting on the uses of the New Institutional Economics (NIE) in economic history. It praises and defends Allen’s method of asking “what economic problem were these institutions...

This study explores the consumption practices of the landed aristocracy of Georgian England. Focussing on three families and drawing on detailed analysis of account books, receipted bills, household inventories, diaries and correspondence, this book charts the spending patterns of this elite...

This review essay discusses and appraises Douglas Allen’s The Institutional Revolution (<CitationRef CitationID="CR2">2011</CitationRef>) as a way of reflecting on the uses of the New Institutional Economics (NIE) in economic history. It praises and defends Allen’s method of asking “what economic problem were these institutions...</citationref>

We examine a relatively neglected aspect of intergenerational transmission of economic standing, namely culturally determined status markers and their valuation in the marriage market. We take nobility to be such a status marker. Using data on Swedish marriages, we test the hypothesis that...

The British Industrial Revolution triggered a reversal in the social order of society whereby the landed elite was replaced by industrial capitalists rising from the middle classes as the economically dominant group. Many observers have linked this transformation to the contrast in values...

Entre las organizaciones económicas más importantes de España se encuentran, al menos hasta el siglo XIX, las casas nobiliarias. Sin embargo, todavía son escasos los estudios dedicados a la historia de la contabilidad de las casas aristocráticas españolas. Este trabajo estudia la...

We study the connection between inheritance systems and the historical evolution of the relationship between a society’s economic structure and its political system, with a focus on Europe from feudal times. The model predicts that, in an early agrarian phase, aristocratic political systems...

La política española estuvo marcada durante el siglo XIX por una frecuente oscilación en el gobierno entre posturas opuestas liberales y conservadoras. Además, ocurrieron diversos cambios contables, entre ellos, la aparición de los presupuestos en las cuentas del Estado. La literatura ha...

This Paper looks at the historical evolution of the relationship between an economy’s structure and the corresponding political system, with a focus on the European experience, starting from feudal times. We show why, in an early agricultural phase, aristocratic political systems prevail,...