Economic Development in Early Modern France (Cambridge Studies in Economic History - Second Series)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: First Edition. Hardback. Dust Jacket., 2/28/2015
EAN 9781107046283, ISBN10: 1107046289
Hardcover, 320 pages, 23.5 x 16 x 2.2 cm
Language: English
Privilege has long been understood as the constitutional basis of Ancien Régime France, legalizing the provision of a variety of rights, powers and exemptions to some, whilst denying them to others. In this fascinating new study however, Jeff Horn reveals that Bourbon officials utilized privilege as an instrument of economic development, freeing some sectors of the economy from pre-existing privileges and regulations, while protecting others. He explores both government policies and the innovations of entrepreneurs, workers, inventors and customers to uncover the lived experience of economic development from the Fronde to the Restoration. He shows how, influenced by Enlightenment thought, the regime increasingly resorted to concepts of liberty to defend privilege as a policy tool. The book offers important new insights into debates about the impact of privilege on early industrialization, comparative economic development and the outbreak of the French Revolution.
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
1. Introduction
profits and economic development during the Old Régime
2. Privileged enclaves and the guilds
liberty and regulation
3. The privilege of liberty put to the test
industrial development in Normandy
4. Companies, colonies, and contraband
commercial privileges under the Old Régime
5. Privilege, liberty, and managing the market
trading with the Levant
6. Outside the body politic, essential to the body economic
the privileges of Jews, Protestants and foreign residents
7. Privilege, innovation, and the state
entrepreneurialism and the lessons of the Old Régime
8. The reign of liberty? Privilege after 1789
Bibliography
Index.