Economic and Social History of the Early Modern Age

The economics of the early modern age and the industrial revolution are fields of study that in recent decades have expanded with broader sources, tools, methodologies of research and explanatory models, placing European facts and phenomena in an increasingly global perspective. Several traditional interpretations of Europe's economic transformation have been reassessed and revised, thanks to numerous studies on various countries and regions of the continent, on different productive sectors, internal and international trade, and the interactions between economies, political institutions and systems. In particular, during the early modern era, new modes of growth and economic relations emerged and will last for a long time, conditioning subsequent international history. The interpretation of the English industrial revolution has been greatly enriched and has seen, for example, the re-evaluation of the gradualism of development, its rooting in the pre-industrial economy and European science and culture, the role of the English state, and of the 'merchant system '. At the same time, European growth is now placed within a global change that connects distant areas such as those of the Americas, Asia and Africa in a complex system of relationship.
The first part of the course will address, taking into account the different historiographical interpretations, some of the aspects of European economic and social history that today appear from a partially different perspective. Among these: the "great divergence" in the development path between Europe and the rest of the world (Asia and China in particular); the role of the state and economic policies in building the economic (and military) strength of the various state groups and in their competition; the social structure and consumption; agricultural production methods and systems, fences, the agro-food sector; demographic trends and urbanization; the problems of technological innovation and its transmission, together with the role of scientific culture, "industrial enlightenment", corporations and the state; the role of capital, credit and domestic and international trade; colonization; the long-term transformations of the organization of work and production up to the advent of the factory system which gives rise to the British industrial take-off and will contribute to deepening the gaps and differences in the levels of development between the various countries. In the second section of the course, the lessons will address the direct analysis of sources and archival documents from Europe's early modern age, and texts concerning issues learned during the first part.