In the doorway to development : an enquiry into market oriented structural changes in Norway ca. 1750-1830 / / by Ragnhild Hutchison.

• Superior document: Library of economic history, v. 3
• Author: Hutchison, Ragnhild.
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Library of economic history ; v. 3.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (258 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Set within the growing literature on European economy in the late 18th and early 19th century, this book furnishes a “pre-history” to Norway’s rapid structural transformation and accelerated economic growth after the mid-nineteenth century. It argues that Norway in the long 18th century benefitted from an export-led growth, which exploited its abundant natural resources. The income from exports fuelled a substantial increase in consumption among rural households, while “pluriactivity”, a household strategy to balance market oriented production and consumption with self sufficiency in the insufficiently developed market succeeded in offering a “soft way” toward modern market society.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Politics, Population and Production: Norway at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century -- The Development of an Internal Market in Pre-Industrial Norway -- Rural Households’ Allocation of Resources and Material Wealth -- Changing Trends in Housing, Furnishings and Smaller Household Goods -- Bites, Nibbles, Sips and Pufff: New Foodstufffs in Rural Norway -- Conclusion: The Slow but Safe Path to a Market Economy -- Bibliography -- Index.