European economic history [antikvár]

This volume is designed to provide a comprchensive view of the development of Western European cconomic life from the end of the Middle Ages through to the period after World War II. Our method has been to establish a number of broad categorics coveríng major aspects of Europe's economic development and to illustrate each of these by one or several readings meant to illuminate spccific points or a generál attitűdé. Many of our selections are taken from contemporary writers; somé are excerpts from the works of historians, chosen for their perspicacity or the usefulness of their account and not for the controversial character of their views. We have endeavored by means of our introductions to make clear the relevance of our selections to economic change and to tie the pieces together into a continuous whole-into a connected story of Europe's economic past. As will rcadily be seen, we have tried to keep the account as short as possible without sacrificing any of the essentíal parts of economic development. Most of the documents and all of the readings which we have selected have been too long to quote in their entirety. We have tried to make our excerpts as representative of the originál document as possible. However, for the sake of clarity it has seemed preferable to modernize spelling and punctuation in the older documents. The translations are our own unless otherwise indicated, and these, in the course of translation, have been modern ized too. In every enterprise of the kind which has been attempted here, many persons are called upon for their counsel, for pennissions to cite their works, and for help in the physical task of turning ideas into a finishcd book. To all who have assisted us, we express our sincerest gratitude. Partiéularly would we thank Professor Louis Snyder, the editor of this series, for his guidance and encourage-