Abstract
The industrial revolution in Europe had been preceded by urban changes. Since the eleventh century not only had thousands of towns been founded, particularly, in northern Italy, southern and western Germany, northeastern France, southern England and some other areas, but this process had also been accompanied by the emergence of the bourgeoisie, by the spreading of simple commodity production and by the development of capitalist production relations in the form of firms putting out work and of manufactures.1 Due to the autonomous position of the bourgeoisie vis-a-vis the feudal lords it had in many towns become possible for the first time in economic history to politically safeguard the results of commodity production. The consequence was that the profit mechanism-the appropriation of surplus labour of journeymen and even wage-labourers by master craftsmen, by firms putting out work and by manufacturers-became effective as a new motive force for the rapid development of the productive forces and, thus, for economic growth. In the feudal states of Europe the sector of non-agricultural production expanded, although to a different degree. It contributed to weakening the feudal basis, to stimulating — to a certain extent — the expansion by European feudal lords of mercantile and trade capital and, eventually, also of the colonialism of the absolutist states. All this leads to the formation of the world market during the sixteenth century and conditions the further development of capitalist production relations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Cf. Mottek, H., Wirtschaftsgeschichte Deutschlands. Ein Grundriß (Economic history of Germany. An outline) Vol. 1 (Berlin, 1964) pp. 144 ff.
Marx/Engels, Selected Works, Vol. I, Manifesto of the Communist Party (Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1969) p. 113.
Tchistosvonov, A., ‘The stadial and regional research into the bourgeois revolutions of the 16th to 18th centuries’, Social Sciences, published by the USSR Academy of Sciences, No. 1, 1975, p. 123.
Blumberg, H., ‘Die deutsche Textilindustrie in der industriellen Revolution’ (The German textile industry in the industrial revolution) Publications by the Institute of Economic History of the ‘Bruno Leuschner’ College of Economics, Berlin, Vol. 3 (Berlin, 1964) p. 23.
Cf. Mottek, H., Wirtschaftsgeschichte Deutschlands. Ein Grundriß, Vol. 2 (Berlin, 1964) p. 20.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 1981 Paul Bairoch and Maurice Lévy-Leboyer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Becker, W. (1981). Methodological Aspects in Describing the Bourgeois and Industrial Revolutions. In: Bairoch, P., Lévy-Leboyer, M. (eds) Disparities in Economic Development since the Industrial Revolution. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04707-9_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04707-9_13
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-04709-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-04707-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)