The business community of seventeenth-century England /

This uniquely comprehensive study explores all aspects of the English business community as it developed between 1590 and 1720. Drawing on largely untapped records of private firms as well as on institutional archives, Richard Grassby describes and explains the economic and technical structure of bu...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Grassby, Richard
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Subjects:
Online Access:Sample text
Table of contents
Publisher description
Description
Summary:This uniquely comprehensive study explores all aspects of the English business community as it developed between 1590 and 1720. Drawing on largely untapped records of private firms as well as on institutional archives, Richard Grassby describes and explains the economic and technical structure of business in a pre-industrial economy and examines the ways in which social values, demographic factors, the family, the state and religion distributed talent, trained and motivated businessmen and determined their life style. The important conclusion which emerges from his study is that individual initiative and a fluid social structure largely account for differences in response to economic opportunities between England and other pre-industrial societies. His book offers an empirically based analysis of why men entered business, how they lived and worked and what they achieved, and it will appeal to all who wish to understand the dynamics of pre-industrial growth and the interaction between business and society.
Physical Description:xxx, 615 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 419-594) and index.
ISBN:0521434505
9780521434508
0521432421
9780521432429