A recurrent and indeed persistent problem in European economic history – a veritable deus ex machina -- from medieval to modern times, is Europe’s supposed ‘balance of payments’ problem in trade with the ‘East’. This supposed problem has often been couched in Mercantilist overtones:...

This article documents and examines the integration of markets across the early modern/late modern divide, exploiting the largest dataset compiled to date on grain prices, spanning one hundred European cities evenly spread across land-locked and low-land areas. Using those series, it studies...

The aim of this article is to analyze the role of energy in longterm economic growth. Particular attention will be paid to the relation between energy and GDP. Energy productivity, that is the ratio of output to energy (Y/E), will be reconstructed and, through a decomposition analysis, I will...

Lira convertibility in the 19th century was mainly advocated due to the need to attract foreign capital, to avoid the temptation of monetizing the huge state debt, to keep the state budget under control and to limit the uncertainties in trade settlements with Italy's main partners, which were...

On average, the poor European periphery converged on the rich industrial core in the four or five decades prior to World War I. Some, like the three Scandinavian economies, used industrialization to achieve a spectacular convergence on the leaders, especially in real wages and living standards....

This text attempts to survey the studies on the history of international economic relations in Portugal. To begin with, it states, in a more general analysis, that the research on the history of international economic relations in Portugal has focussed mainly on the history of the international...

During the Industrial Revolution technological progress and innovation became the main drivers of economic growth. But why was Britain the technological leader? We argue that one hitherto little recognized British advantage was the supply of highly skilled, mechanically able craftsmen who were...

This paper studies the role of French intercontinental trade in the accumulation of domestic capital at the end of the Ancien Régime. It uses O?Brien?s method to measure the amount of annual profits generated by this sector. The marginal gain linked to the existence of the sector is then...

Most European intercontinental trade passed through the Atlantic during the Early Modern period, with the exception of Mediterranean trade and caravan trade through the Eurasian landmass, both in relative decline. Both the rise to primacy of the European economy and the increase of Atlantic...

Herein, I review Peter Temin's book, "The Roman Market Economy", and take the occasion to alert economists to the exciting work that is being done and could be done in the economic history of the ancient world. (JEL C80, N01, N13, N73)