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

BIBLIOGRAPHIES FOR ECO 301Y: 'B'-LIST TOPICS for 2013 - 2014: Short Format


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

Updated 21 August 2013

These bibliographies are in the 'short-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 the next time that this course is given again, 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 in the Topic Number 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 provided in both PDF format 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).

There are no statistical tables or any other appendices in the short-format of these bibliographies. Usually presented in just two or three pages, they contain the most important readings and some key questions to be considered.

The numbers given for each topic are those on the Master List of ECO 301Y Topics

These bibliographies have NOT been updated (not since they were last offered as A-List Topics, some several years ago).

FIRST TERM, 2013: Fall Semester, September - December 2013:

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. 3: The 'Great Depression' of the Late Middle Ages: Economic Slump or Economic Growth? 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). This web link provides not the usual short-form bibliography, but links to other web pages that do contain the relevant bibliographies or other sources on textile history.

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 Age of Overseas Expansion: 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

SECOND TERM, 2014: Winter Semester, January to April 2014

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 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.




To John Munro's Home Page