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Harper Torchbook, NYC, 1944, 355 pgs., index, notes, bibliography,
illustrations, map, paperback
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Reviewer comment
This book continues from Dorn's history from
1740-1763. The same trends are shown. In politics it continues what Philip
Bobbitt termed the era of the 'territorial state' (Shield
of Achilles). This includs the theoretical - philosophical argument for the
legitimacy of the 'state' which expanded even more after the despotic nature of
the ruling elite was overthrown in the revolutionary era. The content is rather
slim on description of the economic sphere. There is a brief discussion on
merchants in chapter 2, and commerce in chapter 4. But this dies give more
detail to Dr. McCloskey's description of the bourgeoisie.
The main subject is the solidification of the 'state' as dominant over society.
And the extensive description of the development of 'territorial state' by
Prussia is important is learning about how the Prussian and later German
conception came to such widespread influence, even today.
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Chapter 1 - The Rulers and the Governments
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Chapter 2 - State and Society
I The Aristocracy and the Squirearchy;
"Each state was a social pyrimid, the base restingpon the peasantry, the
aristocracy constituting the apex, and the urban b ourgeoisie between
them"
II Agrarian Relations and the Peasantry;
III Merchant Capitalism and the Middle Classes
"The outlook of the middle classes was manifestly different. England comes
first to mind when one thinks of the urban middle classes and economic advance,
for it was already capitalist in spirit well before the coming of machinery.
The country possessed a large supply of capital and made advanced use of
credit. It had an elaborate system for supplying raw maerials ande disposing of
finished goods, while in a growing population, dislocated by the agricultural
revolution, it had a cheap and plentiful labor supply. Private merchant
capitalism had already financed and organized large enterprises in
shipbuilding, mining, and metallurgy, sugar refining and distilling, and in the
producion of woolens and fustians. But large-scale production was still in the
offing, and even the putting-out system was the exception rather than the
rule".
Most workers outside agruculture were skilled craftsmen in private practice.
"Unskilled workers were in the minority even in the rapidly growing woolen
industries, which were soon to suck in thousands of the untrained".
"The cotton industry was in its infancy, requiring comparatively few
operatives. Iron mining remained handicapped by its bondage to charcoal, and
coal mining waited upon still greater technical improvements. Yet the day of
the entrepreneur and the capitalistic industrialist was soon to come, to weaken
the independence and nullify the influence of petty master craftsmen and
domestic producers and introduce large-scale production".
"The accumulations of merchant capital meantine effected a profound
revolution in English life. The improvement of river and coastal facilities had
stimlated internal trade, and England and Scotland, functioning as a single
economic unit, formed the largest customs-free trading area in Europe".
"Colossal were the profits from that trade and investment; in spices and
sugar, rum, slaves and tobacco, furs and fish, indigo and drugs, naval stores
and notions; above all, from the huge capital invesments in the East india
Company, the fifty millions of dollars in the northern American colonies, and
the three hundred million in the southern colonies and the West Indies. This
wealth brought undreamed of luxury to the fortunate few, while on the many it
bestowed comfort far beyond comparison with continental living".
"Wealth leveled social distinctions, stirring the ranks of the old landed
aristocracy and fashioning a new plutocracy, hard and brutally courageous,
endowed with immense viality and imbued with a deep sense that in this
competition rewards went to the enterprising, the imaginative, and those not
scrupulous to excess. Georgian England was a creation of their own initiative.
They created it without requiring the stimulus of inter-state competitive
militarism to spur English economic activity. nor did the crown count for much
in this magnificent flowering. It neither provided subsidies nor imposed the
supervisory hand of regulation. The powerful mercantile oligarchy and landed
aristocracy, joined with the new capitalists, conducted their business affairs
as they did the political administration, with a minimum of interference by the
king".
"Similar changes were transforming Bourbon France. Wholesale trade within
the country and almost all its immensely lucrative international trade were
controlled by the great bourgeois families and their associates".
Dr. Gershoy continuew with descriptions of the bourgeois advancement in other
parts of Europe.
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Chapter 3 - The Mandates of Security and Power
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Chapter 4 - The Search for Security: The German Model
The following sections treat on various aspects of the Prussian state economy
I The Tap Roots of Prussianism;
II Agricultural Policy;
III Commerce, Manufacture and Finance;
IV The Price of Glory;
V Enlightened Absolutism in Austria: The Co-regency, 1765-1780;
VI Joseph as Sole Ruler: Civil and Judicial Administration;
VII The Peasantry and the Land Question;
VIII Commerce and Industry;
IX Balance Sheets of the Despotism of Virtue
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Chapter 5 - The Foundations of Power in Eastern Europe
I The Accession of Catherine II;
II The Social Bases of the Administrative System;
III The Peasantry and the Land Question;
IV Trade and Industry;
V "Enlightened Liberty" in Poland;
VI The Scandinavian States: Sweden and Denmark
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Chapter 6 - Latin Europe
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Chapter 7 - War and Peace
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Chapter 8 - Of Human Welfare
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Chapter 9 - Literature and the Arts
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Chapter 10 - Faith, Hope, and Charity in Secular Dress
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Chapter 11 - Constitutional Liberalism Affirmed
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