Readings, Week 3: The British State

Lecture

North, Douglass and Barry Weingast, "Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in 17th Century England," JEH, vol. 49 (1989), pp. 803-32. This is a classic, much cited article.

Pincus, Stephen and James Robinson, "What Really Happened During the Glorious Revolution?" in S. Galiani and I. Sened (eds.) Institutions, Property Rights, and Economic Growth: The Legacy of Douglass North (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 192-222. Supports North & Weingast on the importance of 1688, but disputes how and why. Earlier working paper versions also available.

Further

Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson, "The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change, and Economic Growth," American Economic Review, vol. 95 (2005), pp. 546-579.

Brewer, J., The Sinews of Power: War, Money, and the English State, 1688-1783. Cambridge: CUP, 1988.

Clark, Greg, "The Political Foundation of Modern Economic Growth: England, 1540-1800," Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 26 (1996), pp. 563-88. This article offers evidence contradicting North's famous interpretation of 1688.

Dincecco, Mark, "Fiscal Centralization, Limited Government, and Public Revenues in Europe, 1650-1913," JEH, vol. 69 (2009), pp. 48-103.

Epstein, Stephen. Freedom and Growth: the Rise of States and Markets in Europe, 1300-1750. London: Routledge, 2000, pp. 12-37. More evidence inconsistent with North. Also relevant for understanding the state's fiscal power.

Harris, R. "Government and the Economy, 1688-1850," Ch. 8 in CEHMB, vol. 1. pp. 204-37.

Mokyr, Joel. The Enlightened Economy. Ch. 17, "Formal institutions: the state and the economy," pp. 392-448.

O'Brien, Patrick, "The nature and historical evolution of an exceptional fiscal state and its possible significance for the precocious commercialization and industrialization of the British economy from Cromwell to Nelson," EHR, vol. 64, no. 2 (2011), pp. 408-46.

O'Brien, Patrick, and Nuno Palma, "Not an ordinary bank but a great engine of state: The Bank of England and the British economy, 1694-1844," EHR, vol. 76 (2023), pp. 305-29.

Page, Anthony, "The Seventy Years War, 1744-1815, and Britain's Fiscal-Naval State," War and Society, vol. 34, no. 3 (2015), pp. 162-86.

Stasavage, David, "What we can learn from the early history of sovereign debt," EEH, vol 59 (2016), pp. 1-16.