Britain's Political Economies: Parliament and Economic Life, 1660-1800 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781316649909)

The Glorious Revolution of 1688-9 transformed the role of parliament in Britain and its empire. Large numbers of statutes resulted, with most concerning economic activity. Julian Hoppit here provides the first comprehensive account of these acts, revealing how government affected economic life in this critical period prior to the Industrial Revolution, and how economic interests across Britain used legislative authority for their own benefit. Through a series of case studies, he shows how ideas, interests, and information influenced statutory action in practice. Existing frameworks such as 'mercantilism' and the 'fiscal-military state' fail to capture the full richness and structural limitations of how political power influenced Britain's precocious economic development in the period. Instead, finely grained statutory action was the norm, guided more by present needs than any grand plan, with regulatory ambitions constrained by administrative limitations, and some parts of Britain benefiting much more than others.

Author: Julian Hoppit
ISBN-10: 1316649903
ISBN-13: 9781316649909
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 05/03/2017
Pages: 410
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.26lbs
Size: 9.28h x 6.27w x 0.94d