General Economic History by Weber, Max;

Short description:

One of Weber's most important books and is a landmark work in the history of economic thought. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Introduction and a translation of Weber’s original ‘Conceptual Preface’ to the German edition, both by Keith Tribe. Also included are some corrections to the main text.

Long description:

Sociologist, historian and political economist, Max Weber is one of the most important thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His astonishing range and penetrating insights resulted in many influential books spanning religion, society, politics, and economics, permanently affecting the direction of the social sciences.

General Economic History, published in 1923 (three years after Weber's death) and compiled from meticulous notes taken by his students, ranks as one of his most important books. It is a landmark work in economic history. From early forms of exchange in pre-capitalist households and villages, through industry and the beginnings of commerce, to the evolution of trade and money, Weber tells the epic story of the development of Western capitalism. At its heart, he argues, capitalism is driven by two immensely powerful forces: the basic, material needs that human beings seek to fulfil; and the fundamental but intangible spirit that sets capitalism in motion.

This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Introduction and, for the first time in English, a translation of Weber’s original "Conceptual Preface" to the German edition, both by Keith Tribe. Also included are some corrections to the main text.

Table of Contents:

Introduction to the Routledge Classics Edition Keith Tribe  Conceptual Preface  Part 1: Household, Clan, Village and Manor  1. Agricultural Organization and the problem of Agrarian Communism  2. Property Systems and Social Groups  3. The Origin of Seigniorial Proprietorship  4. The Manor  5. The Position of the Peasants in Various Western Countries Before the Entrance of Capitalism  6. Capitalistic Development of the Manor  Part 2: Industry and Mining Down to the Beginning of the Capitalistic Development  7. Principal Forms of the Economic Organization of Industry  8. Stages in the Development of Industry and Mining  9. The Craft Guilds  10. The Origin of the European Guilds  11. Disintegration of the Guilds and Development of the Domestic System  12. Shop Production. The Factory and its Fore-Runners  13. Mining Prior to the Development of Modern Capitalism  Part 3: Commerce and Exchange in the Pre-Capitalistic Age  14. Points of Departure in the Development of Commerce  15. Technical Requisites for the Transportation of Goods  16. Forms of Organization of Transportation and of Commerce  17. Forms of Commercial Enterprise  18. Mercantile Guilds  19. Money and Monetary History  20. Banking and Dealings in Money in the Pre-Capitalistic Age  21. Interests in the Pre-Capitalistic Period  Part 4: The Origin of Modern Capitalism  22. The Meaning and Presuppositions of Modern Capitalism  23. The External Facts in the Evolution of Capitalism  24. The First Great Speculative Crises  25. Free Wholesale Trade  26. Colonial Policy from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century  27. The Development of Industrial Technique  28. Citizenship  29. The Rational State  30. The Evolution of the Capitalistic Spirit.  Index