"The subject of apprenticeship, one of the more enduring of all economic arrangements, has received more attention from economic historians and the economics profession at large in recent years. Yet, compared, say, with issues such as the economics of slave labor or the rise of formal human...

The Late Middle Ages (c.1300–c.1500) saw the development of many of the key economic institutions of the modern unitary nation-state in Europe. After the "commercial revolution" of the thirteenth century, taxes on trade became increasingly significant contributors to government finances, and...

What factors affect the diffusion of new economic institutions? This paper examines this question exploiting the introduction of the first regularized patent system which appeared in the Venetian Republic in 1474. We begin by developing a model which links patenting activity of craft guilds with...

Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Part I The Guild, Identity of Artifices, and Economic Activities -- 1 Methods and Problems in the Study of the Guild of Second-Hand Dealers in Florence -- 2...

Guilds ruled many crafts and trades from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution, and have always attracted debate and controversy. They were sometimes viewed as efficient institutions that guaranteed quality and skills. But they also excluded competitors, manipulated markets, and blocked...

In the centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution, Western Europe gradually pulled ahead of other world regions in terms of technological creativity, population growth, and income per capita. We argue that superior institutions for the creation and dissemination of productive knowledge...

This study investigates the effect of participative political institutions (PPIs) that emerged in many central European cities from the late 13th century. The empirical analysis of the paper is based on newly compiled long-run data for the existence of different types of PPIs in 104 cities in...

Communal revolts and the politicization of labor -- The fabrication of the urban body politic -- The political economy of freeman status -- Corporatism, proletarianization and the patriarchal order -- Equality, solidarity and the decline of brotherhood -- Epilogue: dis/assembling the workplace...

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Communal Revolts and the Politicization of Labor -- 2 The Fabrication of the Urban Body Politic -- 3 The Political Economy of Freeman Status -- 4 Corporatism, Proletarianization...

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of illustrations -- Preface -- 1 The merchant culture -- 2 The integration of the merchant in the late modern times and the rise of the bourgeoisie -- 3 The merchant's role in the evolution of modern society -- 4 Caught in modern society --...

The limited partnership emerged as a key societal innovation during the early modern age. It allowed an effective separation between partners - those acting and those conferring capital - and it granted limited liability to partners in case of insolvency. The diffusion of limited partnership -...

Charters, transaction costs, and trust -- The business of trust -- Reputation management -- Reputation, rhetoric, and participation -- Associations in legal thought and practice -- Associations in Late Roman Egypt -- Conclusion

This book traces the track record of mutual insurance from 1550 to the present, examining provisions for burial, sickness, unemployment, old age, and widowhood. The author seeks to address such topics as the type of risks micro-insurance covered between 1550 and 2015; how it was organized throughout...

"Politically adrift, alienated from Weimar society, and fearful of competition from industrial elites and the working class alike, the independent artisans of interwar Germany were a particularly receptive audience for National Socialist ideology. As Hitler consolidated power, they emerged as an...

Intro -- CONTENTS -- EINLEITUNG -- MITTELALTERLICHE ZÜNFTE UND HANDWERKER IM LICHTE WIRTSCHAFTS-, SOZIAL- UND KULTURWISSENSCHAFTLICHER THEORIEN -- GUILDS AND POLITICS IN MEDIEVAL URBAN EUROPE -- SOCIAL MOBILITY IN THE CRAFT GUILDS OF MASONS AND CARPENTERS IN LATE MEDIEVAL GHENT -- GUILD...