The theory of money that emerged from the Keynesian Revolution is coming increasingly into question, and a variety of new theories are being put forward as alternatives. The most promising is one I will call the finance constraint theory. This paper is a progress report on its development. It is...

Why are we rich and others poor? What is preventing the less-developed countries from catching up with the more developed? How did we become rich? Underlying these questions are more fundamental ones: What is the nature of economic progress? What are its causes? I seek the answers to these...

Economic history has taken a more micro and theoretical approach. The resulting work has shed considerable light on the functioning of institutions, on which institutions matter, and to some extent on why. However, it has paid insufficient attention to the nature of the overall economic process...

Government had an enormous impact on economic growth and development in pre-industrial Europe. Mostly, this was unintended - a side effect, for example, of government exaction or of the waging of war. However, governments did also intervene in their economies deliberately. These interventions...

In pre-industrial Europe, the pace of economic development and growth varied across territories and over time. Much of this variation was due to the changing impact of government on the economies in question. Government affected the economy principally through its command of violence. We...

Pre-industrial Europe saw a relatively rapid evolution of systems of government. Feudalism gave way to medieval constitutional government and this gave way in turn either to the imperial state or to associational government. This rapid evolution was driven by two interrelated processes - one of...

Government finance in pre-industrial Europe was shaped by two forces - continuing economic development and incessant warfare. Continuing economic development increased potential revenue and altered the ways in which it could be mobilized. Incessant warfare exerted constant, often intense,...

In pre-industrial Europe, government and the economy developed together, each influencing the other. The development of each was shaped by competition. Governments competed for territory, principally by means of war. Their success depended primarily on their ability to mobilize resources. So...

Pre-industrial Europe was served by a network of market centers - market towns, fairs, and commercial cities. Within these centers, there were organized markets that lowered the cost of trading. An organized market provided traders with information, facilities for trading, a system of...

Business in pre-industrial Europe was predominantly commercial, and its organization served the two basic requirements of commerce-representation in distant markets and financing. The various forms of organization included the sea loan, commenda, the share venture, the joint stock company, the...