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/

BIBLIOGRAPHIES FOR ECO. 301Y1: 'A'-LIST TOPICS FOR 2013 - 2014: Long Format


Topics in the Economic History of Later Medieval and Early Modern Europe, c.1250-1750

Updated on 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 'A'-list for 2013 - 2014; and some of them will be transferred to the 'B'-list for the next time that this course is given, when most of this year's 'B'-list topics will, conversely, become 'A'-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 (especially on demography).

The following topics are numbered in the sequence 1 - 10; but the term 'Topic no.' following each of these numbers refers to the Topic Number in the Master List of Essay/Tutorial Topics for Eco. 301Y. 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. See: Eco 301Y Master List of Tutorial Topics

These bibliographies are provided in both PDF format (default) and in MS - Word. To retrieve them, click on the blue-highlighted topic number for the PDF version, and on the highlighted words 'Also in MS Word', for that version; but do so only in the html version of this document (since 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, since MS Word does not always translate Word Perfect tables propertly.


FIRST TERM, FALL 2013, 'A'-LIST TOPICS: September to December 2013:


(1) Topic no. 1: The Black Death and the Late-Medieval Demographic Crises: Demography and Economic Conjuncture in 14th- and 15th-Century Europe. Also in available in MS Word.

(2)Topic no. 3: The Problem of Serfdom in European Economic Development, II: The Spread of Serfdom into Eastern Europe, ca. 1400 - ca. 1700. Also available in MS Word

(3) Topic no. 4 : Feudal Governments, Warfare, Taxation, and Economic Crisis in Late Medieval Europe. Also available in MS Word.

(4)Topic no. 6: Monetary Problems and 'Economic Conjuncture' in Late-Medieval Europe, c. 1290 - c. 1520: the nature of monetary and price changes (deflation and inflation) in the late-medieval European economy. Also available in MS Word

(5)Topic no. 7: The Church, the Usury Doctrine, and Late-Medieval Banking: the Foundations of Modern Financial Institutions and Markets (Private and Public). Also available in MS Word.


SECOND TERM, WINTER 2014: 'A' LIST TOPICS: January to April 2014

Note: these reading lists will not be updated until late December 2013 (or early January 2014).

(6) Topic no. 13: The Population Problem and the Economic Development of Early-Modern Europe (1500 - 1640): Was there a 'Malthusian Trap'? Also in available in MS Word.

(7)Topic no. 14: The Era of the European 'Price Revolution', ca. 1540-1640: The Hamilton Thesis on 'Profit Inflation' and Economic Growth. Also available in MS Word.

(8) Topic no. 15: The 'Rise of Capitalism' and the Protestant Reformations: The Weber-Tawney Theses on the 'Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism'.16th - 18th Centuries. Also available in MS Word.

(9) Topic No. 16: The Social Costs of Agricultural Modernization: The Tudor Stuart Enclosure Movements in England, from ca. 1480 to ca. 1700 . Also available in MS Word.

(10) Topic no. 24: Mercantilism: Money, Economic Nationalism, and the State in Early-Modern Europe. Also available in MS Word.



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