Britain's Political Economies
Parliament and Economic Life, 1660–1800

An innovative account of how thousands of acts of parliament sought to improve economic activity during the early industrial revolution.

Julian Hoppit (Author)

9781316649909, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 May 2017

410 pages, 18 b/w illus. 3 maps 47 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.57 kg

'… the great virtue of this book is that it demonstrates the sheer complexity of the way in which 'ideas' translate into 'action', and that is a valuable lesson indeed.' Keith Tribe, The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought

The Glorious Revolution of 1688–9 transformed the role of parliament in Britain and its empire. Large numbers of statutes resulted, with most concerning economic activity. Julian Hoppit here provides the first comprehensive account of these acts, revealing how government affected economic life in this critical period prior to the Industrial Revolution, and how economic interests across Britain used legislative authority for their own benefit. Through a series of case studies, he shows how ideas, interests, and information influenced statutory action in practice. Existing frameworks such as 'mercantilism' and the 'fiscal-military state' fail to capture the full richness and structural limitations of how political power influenced Britain's precocious economic development in the period. Instead, finely grained statutory action was the norm, guided more by present needs than any grand plan, with regulatory ambitions constrained by administrative limitations, and some parts of Britain benefiting much more than others.

Part I. Contours: 1. Introduction
2. The legislative revolution
3. Legislating economically
4. The local, national, and imperial
5. Information, interests, and political economy
Part II. Cases: 6. The political economy of the fens
7. The political economy of wool
8. The political economy of bounties
9. Refiguring the British fiscal state
10. Conclusion
Appendix 1: legislation subject scheme
Appendix 2: specific economic legislation by English and Scottish counties, 1707–1800.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]