What were the economic roots of modern industrialism? Were labor unions ever effective in raising workers' living standards? Did high levels of taxation in the past normally lead to economic decline? These and similar questions profoundly inform a wide range of intertwined social issues whose complexity, scope, and depth become fully evident in the Encyclopedia. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the field, the Encyclopedia is divided not only by chronological and geographic boundaries, but also by related subfields such as agricultural history, demographic history, business history, and the histories of technology, migration, and transportation. The articles, all written and signed by international contributors, include scholars from Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Covering economic history in all areas of the world and segments of ecnomies from prehistoric times to the present, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History is the ideal resource for students, economists, and general readers, offering a unique glimpse into this integral part of world history.

Il volume esamina i rapporti di lavoro non contrattuali (schiavitù e servaggio) che a lungo contraddistinsero l'economia europea, sia pure con andamenti assai diversi nelle differenti aree. I saggi in esso contenuti esaminano la evoluzione del servaggio (visto come il lato economico del regime signorile) e delle diverse forme di sottomissione personale, fino alla vera e propria tratta degli schiavi, di cui i mercanti europei furono protagonisti, mettendo in luce una situazione assai più complessa e articolata di quanto gli schemi interpretativi tradizionali lasciassero intuire.

This final volume of Derek Beales's magisterial biography of the emperor Joseph II describes the critical period when he was sole ruler of the Austrian monarchy. Explaining his motivation and showing how his ideas developed, Derek Beales reveals that Joseph left an ineffaceable mark on all his lands.

This book investigates the forms that the aggression and violence of peasant elites could take in early modern Fennoscandia, and their role within society. The contributors highlight the social stratification, inner divisions, contradictions and conflicts of the peasant communities, but also pay attention to the elite as leaders of resistance against the authorities. With the formation of more centralised states, the elites’ status and room for agency diminished, but regional and temporal variations were great in this relatively drawn-out process, and there still remained several favourable contexts for their agency. Even though the peasant elite was not a homogenous entity, the chapters in this collection present us one uniting feature – the peasant elites’ tendency to assert themselves with an active and aggressive agency, even if this led to very different outcomes.

Applying the new economics of organisation and relational theories of the firm to the problem of understanding cross-national variation in the political economy, this volume elaborates a new understanding of the institutional differences that characterise the 'varieties of capitalism' worldwide.