Lars Magnusson

'England is a nation of shopkeepers'. Long before Napolean disdainfully paraphrased Adam Smith, British commerce had become a motor for economic growth and increased state power. This four-volume facsimile edition brings together a range of rare seventeenth- and eighteenth-century documents about the mercantile system.

'England is a nation of shopkeepers'. Long before Napolean disdainfully paraphrased Adam Smith, British commerce had become a motor for economic growth and increased state power. This four-volume facsimile edition brings together a range of rare seventeenth- and eighteenth-century documents about the mercantile system.

'England is a nation of shopkeepers'. Long before Napolean disdainfully paraphrased Adam Smith, British commerce had become a motor for economic growth and increased state power. This four-volume facsimile edition brings together a range of rare seventeenth- and eighteenth-century documents about the mercantile system.

'England is a nation of shopkeepers'. Long before Napolean disdainfully paraphrased Adam Smith, British commerce had become a motor for economic growth and increased state power. This four-volume facsimile edition brings together a range of rare seventeenth- and eighteenth-century documents about the mercantile system.

This book represents the first recent attempt to provide a comprehensive treatment of Sweden's economic development since the middle of the 18th century. It traces the rapid industrialisation, the political currents and the social ambitions, that transformed Sweden from a backward agrarian economy into what is now regarded by many as a model welfare state.

In the nineteenth century Adam Smith and others gradually invented a 'tradition' of free trade. This was a towering achievement and has proved to be influential to this day. This book examines this construction of the free trade tradition. Showing how historical contruction is a vital component in the writing of doctrinal history, Lars Magnusson argues that it is important for historians of economic thought to distance themselves from the practice of writing history backwards. Contrasting what occurred in Britain in the nineteenth century with what occurred in the United States and in Sweden, this book shows that perhaps the classical tradition meant something else entirely in different national contexts. This original and thought-provoking book is written such that it will be of great interest not only to historians specializing in economic thought, but also historians with other areas of interest.

In the nineteenth century Adam Smith and others gradually invented a 'tradition' of free trade. This was a towering achievement and has proved to be influential to this day. This book examines this construction of the free trade tradition. Showing how historical contruction is a vital component in the writing of doctrinal history, Lars Magnusson argues that it is important for historians of economic thought to distance themselves from the practice of writing history backwards. Contrasting what occurred in Britain in the nineteenth century with what occurred in the United States and in Sweden, this book shows that perhaps the classical tradition meant something else entirely in different national contexts. This original and thought-provoking book is written such that it will be of great interest not only to historians specializing in economic thought, but also historians with other areas of interest.

This book contains proceedings of a conference organised by the SALTSA research programme and National Institute for Working Life, Sweden, with the support of DG V the Directorate of Economic and Social Affairs. Will the enlargement of the European Union have long-term effects on the European labour market, i.e. lead to greater integration and homogenisation? Will Europe be one labour market in the future? The challenges of a common European labour market will be much more accentuated as a consequence of the growth of the EU in the coming decade. Two important issues are discussed in the contributions to this volume: firstly, enlargement, globalisation and the new labour market challenges for Europe; secondly, Amsterdam and the effects of the Euro on the labour market. In this book, highly acclaimed researchers make important contributions to the present state of research on European labour markets. Topics covered include the role of wage-setting institutions and unions in relation to monetary policies and globalisation, welfare adjustment in Europe, the convergence or divergence of European labour markets, democracy and changing labour markets, as well as the risk of social competition and tax evasion. The book will be influential in the ongoing discussions regarding a common labour market and provide a much needed contribution to one of the most debated subjects in European politics and economics.

This book represents the first recent attempt to provide a comprehensive treatment of Sweden's economic development since the middle of the 18th century. It traces the rapid industrialisation, the political currents and the social ambitions, that transformed Sweden from a backward agrarian economy into what is now regarded by many as a model welfare state.

Trade is the dominant subject in nineteenth century economics. During the course of the century, Britain was transformed from a protectionist power to an open economy, a change embodied by the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. This is reflected in the economic literature of the period, with the qualified free trade advocacy of the early classical economists developing into more strident views of the Manchester School. However throughout the period free trade did not go unchallenged, and by the end of the century a fully developed protectionist position had emerged represented by, for example, the economic nationalism of Henry Carey in the United States and in the fair trade movement in Britain.Free Trade: 1793-1886 provides a comprehensive collection of materials relating to the major debates about external trade in the nineteenth century. It represents a wide range of opinions, and combines materials by leading figures, with some extremely rare but representative pieces from less well-known names. The collection includes an original introduction by the editor, and each of the individual pieces has been carefully retypeset.The set includes material by: James Mill, Richard Cobden, Robert Torrens, John Ramsey McCulloch, Freidrich List, Henry Carey and M. Frederick Bastiet.

This set is the most important and authoritative collection of mercantilist writings to date. In all some 26 texts are reproduced in their entirety and the collection is supplemented by a substantial introduction.

This study of a specific industry's survival and growth in three countries is a useful resource for research on industrial development in 19th century Europe. Presenting the history of three major cutlery districts in Western Europe during the 19th century - Sheffield in England, Bergische land (Solingen and Remscheid) in Germany, and Eskilstuna in Sweden - the author focuses on each region's industrial development in relation to its socio-cultural context. This work challenges the flexible specialisation thesis often used to explain the seeming persistence of small-scale and decentralised production within the cutlery industry since the 19th century, and argues that growing businesses had to develop competitive strategies for control over important resources.

Ever since the Physiocrats and Adam Smith, mercantilism or 'the mercantile system' have been described as the opposite of classical political economy. This view is very much brought into question by the current book. It argues that the sharp distinction between mercantilism and 19th century laissez-faire economics has obscured the meaning, content and contribution of the former. This book presents a full-scale account of the development of mercantilism as a trend of economic thought during the 17th and 18th centuries. Instead of accepting existing interpretations, it begins with the most fundamental questions: What was mercantilism? Did it have a central message? Was it really a coherent school of thought? A central theme of the book is its critique of narrow definitions of its subject. Mercantilism must be understood as a series of written texts appearing in a particular political and economic context, rather than as an all-embracing system of economic thought. Within this context a language and vocabulary of economics was developed that was an essential precondition for the subsequent growth of economic thought and knowledge. In this sense mercantilism was much more modern than has been previously appreciated.