This study investigates the evolution of market integration in Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean and Europe until World War I. We find that market integration levels were the highest in northwest Europe while Ottoman lands were part of the less integrated periphery. Over the centuries, most European...

Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Commerce, State-Building, and Republicanism in Old Regime France -- 1. Louis XIV, Marseillais Merchants, and the Problem of Discerning the Public Good -- 2. Between Republic and Monarchy: Debating Commerce and Virtue -- 3. France and the...

The establishment of Christianity in the late- and post-Roman world caused an economic as well as a religious revolution, but, while a great deal of attention has been paid to the religious developments of the period, the impact of the establishment of the Church on the economy has attracted...

Propagation of rule: a theory of economic success and stagnation -- The propagation of rule -- Historical origins of rule propagation -- Applying the theory: why the West got rich and the Middle East did not -- Bans on taking interest -- Restrictions on the printing press -- Printing & the...

For centuries following the spread of Islam, the Middle East was far ahead of Europe. Yet, the modern economy was born in Europe. Why was it not born in the Middle East? In this book Jared Rubin examines the role that Islam played in this reversal of fortunes. It argues that the religion itself...