These classic studies of the history of economic change in 19th- and 20th-century United States, Canada, and British West Indies examine national product; capital stock and wealth; and fertility, health, and mortality. "A 'must have' in the library of the serious economic historian."—Samuel...

I. FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES IN EUROPE -- Markets and institutions in the rise of London as a financial center in the seventeenth century Larry Neal, Stephen Quinn -- Paris Bourse, 1724-1814: experiments in microstructure Eugene N. White -- No exit: notarial bankruptcies and the evolution of...

One of the great puzzles of Sub-Saharan African economic history is that wheeled transportation was barely used prior to the colonial period. Instead, head porterage was the main method of transportation. The consensus among historians is that this was a rational adaption to the underlying...

This two volume set reprints 37 important contributions dealing with international trade throughout the world during the rise of Great Britain to world dominance, the industrialization of Western Europe, and the political and economic expansion of European powers into Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Although we cannot conceive of processes of economic growth that do not involve institutional change, in this essay we outline some reasons why one should be cautious about grounding a theory of growth on institutions. We emphasize how very different institutional structures have often been...