"This volume compares early modern efforts to provide "public goods" defined as non-market mediated goods not limited to personal relations such as kinship. We examine poverty and famine relief, infrastructure, and forestry in East Asia and Europe, using Japan's Tokugawa era (1603-1868) as a...

Scholarly discussions on economic development in history, specifically those linked to industrialization or modern economic growth, have paid great attention to the formation and development of the market economy as a set of institutions able to augment people's welfare. The role of specific...