Freedom and Capitalism in Early Modern Europe

This book hinges upon ideas and discourses variously known under labels such as Mercantilism and Cameralism. Often viewed as antithesis of capitalism, inclusive institutions and good economy in the West, this book re-assembles them and builds them into a coherent origin story of modern capitalism. It explores the field of intellectual and conceptual history, especially the history of Renaissance and Mercantilism in a longer history of capitalism. Rather than hindrances, the author argues that Mercantilist and Cameralist political economies presented essential stepping stones of modern capitalism, in Britain and beyond. This book will be of interest to academics and students in general economic history, the history of capitalism, economic development and the history of economic thought.

Reviews historians debates on markets, capitalism and state formation since the Renaissance with specific respect to economic policies known under the Mercantilist and Cameralist label Provides a concise overview on early modern European economic lives Situates the economic literatures of capitalism within the idiosyncratic conditions provided on the ground in early modern Europeodern Europe

Autorentext
Dr Philipp Robinson Rössner is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Manchester, UK. He was recently elected as the first historian ever into the "Young Academy" of the Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig (Saxon Academy of Sciences).

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Cameralism, Mercantilism and the Making of the Modern Economic Mind.-Chapter 2. Debating capitalism and economic modernity in early modern Europe.- Chapter 3. Early Modern Economic Lives.- Chapter 4: Early Modern Political Economy and the Market: A Life on the Margins?.- Chapter 5. Capitalism and Freedom in pre-modern Thought.- Chapter 6. Creating freedom, constructing laissez-faire.- Chapter 7. Strange Origins of Capitalism.