The course offers an approach centered on economic history, a subject which is new to most students who do not study it during their graduate curriculum. In so doing, the course aims at expanding students' historical skills and enhance their critical thinking. For this purpose, as an introduction some basic 'structural' issues are discussed in historical perspective, such as demand and supply, the factors of production, productivity. Then the course moves on to examine a few crucial phenomena which characterised the social and economic history of preindustrial Europe, in the wider context of world history.
Course Prerequisites
A reasonable basic knowledge of key economic and historical concepts. Anyway, if needs be, additional personal guidance will be provided over rudiments of history and basic economic notions.
Teaching Methods
Lectures, during which students' active and critical participation will be greatly appreciated and encouraged.
Assessment Methods
Oral exam, designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate achievement of the course learning outcomes. The assessment strategy aims at verifying the students' knowledge of the topics of the programme and their critical ability to connect historical events and put them in historical context and perspective.
Texts
Carlo M. CIPOLLA, Uomini, tecniche, economie, Bologna, il Mulino, 2013
Carlo M. CIPOLLA, Storia economica dell'Europa pre-industriale, Bologna, il Mulino, 2009 (except for part ii, chapter 4: "Imprese, credito e moneta")
Contents
The course aims at providing students with a wide-ranging reconstruction of preindustrial European society and economy (ca. 1000-1700). A short summary of the main topics to be covered in the course includes:
The basic features - Demand - The factors of production - Production and productivity
The great historical phenomena - The Urban Revolution - Population - Technology - Enterprise, credit, and money - Economic policies - Incomes, production, and consumption 1000-1500 - The changing balance of economic power in Europe and the world 1500-1700 - Preindustrial Europe and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution
