Growth in a Traditional Society : : The French Countryside, 1450-1815 / / Philip T. Hoffman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Archive 1927-1999
• VerfasserIn: Hoffman, Philip T.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2018]; ©1996
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Series: The Princeton Economic History of the Western World ; 7
• Physical Description: 1 online resource
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Illustrations --; Tables --; Acknowledgments --; Abbreviations --; Introduction --; CHAPTER One. Peasants, Historians, and Economic Growth --; CHAPTER Two. Common Rights and the Village Community --; CHAPTER Three. Labor Markets, Rental Markets, and Credit in the Local Economy --; CHAPTER Four. Agricultural Productivity in France, 1450-1789 --; CHAPTER Five. Explaining Productivity in a Traditional Economy --; CHAPTER Six. Conclusion --; APPENDIX A The Methods and Sources Used with the Notre Dame Sample --; APPENDIX Β Measuring TFP with Other Samples of Leases --; APPENDIX C The Economics of Urban Fertilizer --; APPENDIX D Hedonic Wage Regressions --; Notes --; Sources and Bibliography --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9780691187204; 9783110442496
• DOI: 10.1515/9780691187204?locatt=mode:legacy
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Philip T. Hoffman.

Philip Hoffman shatters the widespread myth that traditional agricultural societies in early modern Europe were socially and economically stagnant and ultimately dependent on wide-scale political revolution for their growth. Through a richly detailed historical investigation of the peasant agriculture of ancien-régime France, the author uncovers evidence that requires a new understanding of what constituted economic growth in such societies. His arguments rest on a measurement of long-term growth that enables him to analyze the economic, institutional, and political factors that explain its forms and rhythms. In comparing France with England and Germany, Hoffman arrives at fresh answers to some classic questions: Did French agriculture lag behind farming in other countries? If so, did the obstacles in French agriculture lurk within peasant society itself, in the peasants' culture, in their communal property rights, or in the small scale of their farms? Or did the obstacles hide elsewhere, in politics, in the tax system, or in meager opportunities for trade? The author discovers that growth cannot be explained by culture, property rights, or farm size, and argues that the real causes of growth derived from politics and gains from trade. By challenging other widely held beliefs, such as the nature of the commons and the workings of the rural economy, Hoffman offers a new analysis of peasant society and culture, one based on microeconomics and game theory and intended for a wide range of social scientists.