Managing the Wealth of Nations : Political Economies of Change in Preindustrial Europe

Commerce and manufactures gradually introduced order and good government,” wrote Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations, “and with them, the liberty and security of individuals.” However, Philipp Rössner shows how, when looked at in the face of history, it has usually been the other way around. This book follows the development of capitalism from the Middle Ages through the industrial revolution to modern day, casting new light on the areas where pre-modern political economies of growth and development made a difference. It shows how order and governance provided the foundation for prosperity, growth and the wealth of nations. Written for scholars and students of economic history, this is a pioneering new study that debunks the neoliberal origin myth of how capitalism came into the world. Front Cover Managing the Wealth of Nations: Political Economies of Change in Preindustrial Europe Copyright information Table of contents List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgements 1 Inventing Dynamics A tale of two models: the Wealth of Nations reconsidered Coal but no colonies: political economy in the German-speaking lands and Marx’s missed opportunity What has been missing in the story of the wealth of nations? A summary of the argument 2 Governing the Future Working for posterity Concepts of growth: Begriffsgeschichte and early modern capitalism The Great War, cameralism and the origins of prospective thinking Meanings of ‘future’ in early modern Europe Modelling the oeconomic future and early modern capitalism 3 The Myth of the Myopic State Prologue: Potatoes, stewardship and kings Benevolent or bellicose states Princes, mirrors and happiness: oeconomies of statecraft from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution What could states do in the age of capitalism’s rise, 1250s–1850s? 4 Configuring Free Markets Moral debates in the age of the free market, 1890s Of markets and men: modern models and market enchantments Markets, time and spatiality Well-ordered police states? The myth of over-regulated markets, 1250s–1850s Strategies of market order, 1250s–1800s Beyond the Industrial Revolution and the moral economy: back to the 1890s Markets in theory: a continental perspective, 1250s–1850s 5 Money and the Rise of Modern Capitalism Early modern money’s dirty hidden lives Money and political economies of state formation Money supply and continental visions of market economy, 1500s–1900s Advocates of stable money Advocati Diaboli: playing around with exchange rates Monetary policy and economic life in the age of early capitalism, 1250s–1850s 6 Velocity! Burying money: hoarding as a danger to the common weal Hoarding and velocity in the history of concepts and of economic thought Coins and the dynamics of capitalism Transforming oeconomy: velocity, urbanization and the manufacturing of capitalism 7 Creating Wealth Manufacturing capitalism: between concepts, policies and ideas Mercantilism, manufacturing and the history of an old idea, 1500s–2000s Lost in translation? Culture, popular enlightenment and the powers of space 8 Manufacturing Wealth The little manufactory, a baron and the white gold Oeconomies of failure and success: between Smithian and Schumpeterian growth Manufacturing capitalism in early modern Europe Free trade France and ancien régime economics Habsburg and the Hörnigk moment Scotland: cradle of capitalism, or, how to bury your dead? Sweden and the Age of Greatness, 1650–1850 On silver rocks, Schumpeterian states and a ‘culture of growth’: early modern industrial Germany, 1400s–1900s Epilogue State Capacity and Capitalism from Cain to Keynes Notes Index ‘Commerce and manufactures gradually introduced order and good government,'wrote Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations, ‘and with them, the liberty and security of individuals.'However, Philipp Robinson Rössner shows how, when looked at in the face of history, it has usually been the other way around. This book follows the development of capitalism from the Middle Ages through the industrial revolution to the modern day, casting new light on the areas where premodern political economies of growth and development made a difference. It shows how order and governance provided the foundation for prosperity, growth and the wealth of nations. Written for scholars and students of economic history, this is a pioneering new study that debunks the neoliberal origin myth of how capitalism came into the world. This pioneering work debunks the neoliberal origin myth of how capitalism came into the world. Rössner follows the development of capitalism from the Middle Ages through the industrial revolution to the modern day, casting new light on the areas where premodern political economies of growth and development made a difference