Description
Book SynopsisIncorporating original archival research and a series of critiques of recent accounts of economic development in pre-modern England, in The Origin of Capitalism in England 1400-1600, Spencer Dimmock has produced a challenging and multi-layered account of a historical rupture in English feudal society which led to the first sustained transition to agrarian capitalism and consequent industrial revolution.
Table of ContentsIntroduction PART I: A DEFENCE OF ROBERT BRENNER 1. Robert Brenner’s Thesis on the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism 2. The Prime Mover of Economic and Social Development 3. Feudalism, Serfdom and Extra-Economic Surplus Extraction 4. Class Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism 5. Insecure Property and the Origin of Capitalism 6. The Rise of Capitalist Yeomen and a Capitalist Aristocracy 7. Periodising the Origin of Capitalism in England 8. Orthodox Marxism versus Political Marxism PART II: ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN KENT: A CASE STUDY 9. Economy and Society in Late Medieval Lydd and its Region 10. Engrossment, Enclosure and Resistance in the Fifteenth Century 11. An Emerging Capitalist Social-Property Structure 12. Engrossment, Enclosure and Resistance in the Sixteenth Century 13. Legitimising Social Transformation: The Festival of St. George Conclusion Appendix References Index
