This is a modern economic and institutional history of European grain markets. This book examines the markets' early regulation, their poor performance and the frequent market failures. Using insights from development economics and econometrics, Persson also extracts general lessons from this...

"This concise and accessible introduction to European economic history focusses on the interplay between the development of institutions and the generation and diffusion of knowledge-based technologies. The author challenges the view that European economic history before the Industrial...