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

Professor John H. Munro
Department of Economics
University of Toronto
150 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G7
CANADA

ECONOMICS 2210Y

Topics in the Economic and Social History of Later Medieval and Renaissance Europe



SELECTED SEMINAR TOPICS: for which NO prior of knowledge of Economics is required.



MONDAYS, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. TRINITY COLLEGE: LARKIN 203

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1. Medieval European Demography and the Family: (1) The Origins and Evolution of the European Marriage Pattern.



2. Medieval European Demography and the Economy: (2) Did Late-Medieval Population Growth Produce a Malthusian Crisis?



3. Medieval European Demography and Disease: (3) The Black Death, Later Plagues, and Economic Conjoncture in Late-Medieval European Society.



4. The Social and Economic Structures of Medieval European Agriculture, 1260 - 1460: Manorial and non-manorial agrarian regimes in southern and northern Europe; the Open-Field Systems of northern Europe: peasant agriculture and their crop-rotation systems.



5. Agrarian Structural Changes during the Late Middle Ages, 1260 - 1460: Italy, France, Spain, the Low Countries, England: new techniques, new crops, new forms of landholding.



6. The Problem of 'Serfdom' in European Economic Development (I): The Decline of Serfdom in the West, 13th to 15th Centuries.



7. The Problem of 'Serfdom' in European Economic Development (II): The Spread of Serfdom in the East (Germany, Poland, Russia, Bohemia, Hungary), 14th to 16th Centuries.



8. The Role of Money in the Medieval Economy: Money, Coinages, and Moneys-of-Accounts.



9. Monetary Problems and Economic Conjoncture in Late-Medieval Europe, 1290 - 1460.



10. The Church, Feudal Society, and Economic Attitudes: the Usury Question.



11. Banking, Credit, and Foreign Trade in the Late-Medieval Economy, 1250 - 1460.



12. The Dynamics of Change in Late-Medieval Industry, 1250 - 1460: Textile Manufacturing in Western Europe (Italy, the Low Countries, France, and England).



13. Guilds, Women, and Urban Governments in the Late-Medieval European Economy, 1200 - 1500.



14. Feudal Governments, Warfare, and Taxation in Late-Medieval Europe, 1290 - 1500.



15. The 'Crisis of the Early Fourteenth Century': Did western Europe experience a combined demographic and economic crisis in the early fourteenth century?



16. The 'Great Depression' of the Late Middle Ages: the current debate about recession and prosperity in the late-medieval economy.



17. The Late-Medieval 'Standard of Living' Debate: Rising Real Wages and Growing Poverty?



18. Economic 'Recovery' and Expansion in Europe, 1450 - 1540.



19. Demographic Changes and Population Growth in the European Economy: 1450 to 1600: Was there (again) a Malthusian Crisis?



20. Money, Credit, and Monetary Changes in the European Economy, 1450 - 1600.



21. Banking, Finance, and Public Credit in Late-Medieval and Early Modern Europe, to 1600.



22. The European 'Price Revolution,' 1520 - 1640: Monetary and Real Factors.



23. Early-Modern Agriculture (I): Agricultural Innovations in the Low Countries, 1320 - 1500.



24. Early-Modern Agriculture (II): The Diffusion of Agricultural Innovations in England during the 16th century.



25. Early-Modern Agriculture (III): The Enclosure Movements in Tudor England, 1460 - 1600.



26. Early-Modern Agriculture (IV): The 'Rise of the Gentry' Debate (the Tawney Thesis).



27. Early-Modern Agriculture (V): Social and Agrarian Changes in France, 1453 - 1650.



28. Prices, Population, Prosperity, and Poverty in Tudor and early Stuart England.



29. Overseas Exploration, Maritime Expansion, and Colonization by Europeans, 1450 - 1600: the Portuguese and Spanish Empires in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.



30. Changing Patterns of Mediterranean Commerce: Italy, the Levant, and the Hispanic World, 1350 - 1600.



31. The Hanseatic League and the Rise of the Dutch Commercial Empire, 1350 - 1600.



32. England, the Hanse, and the Netherlands: International Commercial Rivalry, 1350 - 1600.



33. Draperies Old and New: the Transformations of the Textile Industries in the Low Countries, England, and France, 1450 - 1600.



34. 'Protestantism and the Rise of Capitalism': the Weber-Tawney Thesis and Its Critics.



35. The 'General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century': the Debates engendered by the Hobsbawm and Trevor Roper thesis on the transition from 'feudal' to 'capitalist' societies, and the origins of the modern Industrial Revolution in Western Europe.