Ecology, Economy and State Formation in Early Modern Germany

Original case study of how a peasant society in early modern Europe sustained its economy.

Paul Warde (Author)

9780521143332, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 10 June 2010

412 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.88 kg

"...well thought out piece of research based on the vast literature on the Black Forest and the Duchy of Wurttemberg, and on a thorough investigation of manuscript sources housed in Stuttgart and local record offices."
Mauro Ambrosoli, American Historical Review

This is an innovative analysis of the agrarian world and growth of government in early modern Germany through the medium of pre-industrial society's most basic material resource, wood. Paul Warde offers a regional study of south-west Germany from the late fifteenth to the early eighteenth century, demonstrating the stability of the economy and social structure through periods of demographic pressure, warfare and epidemic. He casts light on the nature of 'wood shortages' and societal response to environmental challenge, and shows how institutional responses largely based on preventing local conflict were poor at adapting to optimise the management of resources. Warde further argues for the inadequacy of models that oppose the 'market' to a 'natural economy' in understanding economic behaviour. This is a major contribution to debates about the sustainability of peasant society in early modern Europe, and to the growth of ecological approaches to history and historical geography.

List of figures
List of maps
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Glossary
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. The peasant dynamic
2. Power and property
3. The regulative drive
4. From clearance to crisis?
5. The two ecologies
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Social impact of environmental issues [RNT], Economic history [KCZ], Population & demography [JHBD], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]