Ecology, Economy and State Formation in Early Modern Germany

Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-0-521-83192-5
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 41, 410 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 817 g

Reihe: Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time

This is an innovative analysis of the agrarian world and growth of government in early modern Germany through the medium of pre-industrial society's most basic material resource, wood. Paul Warde offers a regional study of southwest Germany from the late fifteenth to the early eighteenth century, demonstrating the stability of the economy and social structure through periods of demographic pressure, warfare and epidemic. He casts new light on the nature of 'wood shortages' and societal response to environmental challenge, and shows how institutional responses largely based on preventing local conflict were poor at adapting to optimise the management of resources. Warde further argues for the inadequacy of models that oppose the 'market' to a 'natural economy' in understanding economic behaviour. This is a major contribution to debates about the sustainability of peasant society in early modern Europe, and to new ecological approaches to history and historical geography.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Warde, Paul

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftssektoren & Branchen Fertigungsindustrie Sonstige Fertigungsindustrien

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. The peasant dynamic; 2. Power and property; 3. The regulative drive; 4. From clearance to crisis?; 5. The two ecologies.

Über Autor(innen)

Warde, Paul
Paul Warde is Lecturer in History at the University of Cambridge.