Douglass North once emphasized that development takes centuries, but he did not have a theory of how and why change occurs. This groundbreaking book advances such a theory by examining in detail why England and Spain developed so slowly from 1000 to 1800. A colonial legacy must go back centuries...

A Business of State reveals how the English state took an active role in the creation and functioning of the East India Company in the early years of its existence, and, reciprocally, how institutions like the Company helped create the early Stuart state. To understand how the Company operated,...