Growth Recurring in Preindustrial Spain? [dataset]

Series estimadas de población y producción para el período anterior a la revolución industrialÍndice de hojas - Índice de series - Cuadros - Nota

Famine and disease

The infrequency of severe mortality crises and, more generally, the low prevalence of famine and disease are characteristics of modern industrial and post-industrial societies. Understanding mortality crises is an important part of understanding some fundamental aspects of preindustrial economies. Understanding the processes leading to their decline and the associated improvements in living standards and life expectancy—what Robert Fogel (2004) called the ‘escape from hunger and premature death’—is a precondition for knowing what is needed to prevent the re-emergence of widespread famine and lethal infectious disease. So this is a field in which the contribution of economic historians is vital and, given that the stakes are so high, one in which economists would do well to carefully consider the past, before making assumptions about the future

American Precious Metals and Their Consequences for Early Modern Europe

An early version of this chapter can be found in: http://www.ehes.org/EHES_174.pdfOver the early modern period and beyond, massive amounts of silver and gold were found and mined in the Americas. This chapter reviews the consequences for the European economies. Some second-order receiver countries such as England benefited in both the short and long run. First-order receivers such as Spain and Portugal also benefited in the short run, but their continued exposure to the arrival of massive quantities of precious metals eventually led to loss of competitiveness and an institutional resource curse.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio