Professor John Munro passed away on December 23, 2013. This site is maintained and kept online as an archive. For more infomation please visit the Centre for Medieval Studies
Prof. John H. Munro
Department of Economics
University of Toronto
http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/munro5/
Updated 21 August 2013
These bibliographies are in the 'long-format' only. Please see the general notes about bibliographies for
undergraduate economic history courses.
The following topics are on the 'B'-list for 2013 - 2014; and some of them will be transferred to the 'A'-list
for the next time that this course is given, when most of this year's 'A'-list topics will, conversely, become 'B'-list topics. Each
year a different set of 10 topics, 5 topics for each of the two terms, is chosen from the Master List of essay
topics, though with some occasional duplications, of the most important topics.
The numbers for these topics are those for the topic numbers in the Master List of A and B List Essay Topics for Eco. 301Y1
You should refer to this Master List for a more detailed discussion of the debates about and thus
the significance of each of these major topics, in European economic history.
These bibliographies are presented in both PDF format (default) and MS Word. To retrieve theme, click on the blue-highlighted topic number for the PDF version, and on the highlighted words 'Also available in MS Word ', for that version; but do so only in the html version of this document (because the pdf version will not give you that access).
In this long-format, the topic bibliographies are as complete as possible, with the readings listed chronologically
in order of publication, grouped by subtopics; and each contains a long list of questions to be considered in
reading these materials and in writing your essays.
Most of these bibliographies also contain statistical tables, which are best read in the pdf format; indeed,
in some cases, the MS Word conversion of my original Word Perfect document corrupts the tables.
Note: with very few exceptions, these bibliographies have not been updated: not since they were presented earlier as A-list topics
Topic no. 2 : The Problem of Serfdom in European Economic Development,
I: The Decline of Serfdom in Western Europe, ca. 1300 - 1500. Also available in MS Word.
Topic no. 5: The 'Great Depression' of the Late Middle Ages: Economic Slump or Economic Growth?: a debate about changes in late-medieval
living standards and economic welfare. Also available in MS Word.
Topic no. 8: The Dynamics of Change in Late-Medieval Industry, ca. 1250 - ca. 1460: Textile Manufacturing in Western Europe (Italy, the Low Countries, France, and England). Also available in MS Word.
Topic no. 9: Urban Governments, Guilds, and Gender-Related Occupations
in Late-Medieval European Towns, 1200 - 1500 . Also available in MS Word .
Topic no.11: The Inauguration of the European Age of Overseas Expansion and Imperialism: Maritime Explorations and the Establishment of the Portuguese and Spanish Overseas Empires, c. 1450 - 1600. Also available in MS Word
Topic no. 12: The Rise and Expansion of The Dutch Commercial Empire: ca. 1360 - ca. 1650. Also available in MS Word
Topic no. 17: The 'Rise of the Gentry' Debate: On
the Origins of Modern Agrarian Capitalism. Also available in MS Word
Topic no. 18: On the Industrial 'Origins' of the Industrial Revolution: The Nef Thesis on Industrial Change in Tudor-Stuart England, ca. 1540 - 1640. Also available in MS Word
Topic no. 19: Social and Agrarian Changes in Early-Modern France: the Decline of Feudalism, Rural 'Embourgeoisement' and the Seigneurial Reaction, 1480 to 1789. Also available in MS Word.
Topic no. 20: The 'General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century, c.1620 - 1740: The Hobsbawm (Marxist) Thesis on the Transition from 'Feudalism to Capitalism'.
Also available in MS Word.
Topic no. 22: The 'Proto-Industrialization' Debate: The Mendels Thesis on Rural Handicraft Industries in Early Modern Europe and the Transition to Modern Urban Industrialzation. Also available in MS Word.
Topic no. 23: The Economic Declines of Spain and Italy in the Seventeenth Century: Aspects of the 'General Crisis Era' or Independent Phenomena? Also available in MS Word.
Topic no. 25: The Economic Decline of the Netherlands in the Eighteenth Century: Absolute or
Relative? Also available in MS Word.