Routledge Explorations in Economic History
About the Book Series
This long established series provides a platform for books which break new ground in the understanding of the development of the modern world economy. Equally rooted in economics and history, the series is not limited to any particular period or region. Individual titles focus on particular countries, key industries, themes, or international economic relations.
Urbanization without Economic Growth in Pre-Industrial Italy: Rome’s Long Shadow
1st Edition
By Luigi Oddo
September 30, 2026
Why did some of Europe’s most urbanized pre-industrial societies industrialize relatively late? Conventional theories link urbanization to economic growth. Yet European history presents a paradox: early industrializers were not the most urbanized, while highly urbanized regions often stagnated. ...
Merchants in Global Economic History: Intermediation, Information, Trust, and Exchange
1st Edition
By Toshiaki Tamaki
July 21, 2026
In this book, Toshiaki Tamaki analyses merchant and entrepreneurial activity from ancient times to the twenty-first century, arguing that these intermediaries drive global market expansion and institutional development, as they help to connect distant regions and reduce information asymmetry. The ...
A History of the Global Wheat Trade: Actors and Dynamics (1840-1914)
1st Edition
Edited
By Marco Bertilorenzi, Carlo Fumian, Giovanni Gozzini
July 20, 2026
During the second half of the 19th century, a new global market for wheat came to the fore. Ever since, scarce and perishable food has been transformed into a modern global commodity, millions of tons of which is sold, bought, and transported across the oceans, providing the “daily bread” for a ...
An Economic History of the Spanish Welfare State: The Political Economy of Social Policy from the Mid-19th Century to the Present
1st Edition
By Sergio Espuelas
July 20, 2026
This monograph analyses the evolution of the welfare state in Spain from qualitative and quantitative perspectives. It basically relies on estimates of public social spending from 1850 to the present and offers comparisons with the rest of Europe. As a whole, the volume sheds light on the ...
Economic History of Living Standards in Brazil: Policy, Health, and Environment, 1850–1950
1st Edition
By Daniel W. Franken
July 20, 2026
Incorporating political, economic, and environmental factors, this book explores the evolution of health and living standards in Brazil in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It draws on anthropometric data and an interdisciplinary approach to illuminate the profound socioeconomic ...
Mining and Financial Imperialism: The Central African Copper Bonanza, c. 1890–1970
1st Edition
By Timo Särkkä
July 20, 2026
Mining finance houses were substantial public corporations with access to money markets in the City of London, the world’s leading capital market for mining. These institutions became dominant at the inception of colonial rule and, in varying forms, remained so throughout the twentieth century. ...
Networks in the Early History of Capitalism: Merchant Practices in Renaissance Venice
1st Edition
By Stefania Montemezzo
July 20, 2026
Drawing on a detailed examination of Venetian commerce in the Middle Ages, this book explores the business practices and structures that enabled merchants to compete in a challenging international market. Contributing to the literature on the early history of capitalism, this book demonstrates how ...
Global Trade in the Early Medieval World: The Movement of Wealth, Spice and Medicine, 700–1100
1st Edition
By Toslima Khatun
June 22, 2026
Exploring the movement of peoples, perfumes, and spices across vast distances in this period of medieval history across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, this book examines the role of Arab merchants in trade between and among the Caliphal and Carolingian elites. The study of the trade in perfumes...
An Economic History of Spanish Industrialization
1st Edition
Edited
By Jordi Catalan, Marc Prat
June 03, 2026
Spain belongs to the group of European peripheral economies where the diffusion of the British Industrial Revolution failed during the 19th century, as Professor Jordi Nadal underlined half a century ago. This book presents the analysis of leading economic historians on the long-term economic ...
Economic History of the European Energy Industry: Lighting up Western Europe, 19th to 21st centuries
1st Edition
Edited
By Alberte Martínez-López, Jesús Mirás-Araujo, Nuria Rodríguez-Martín
May 22, 2026
Global climate change and the war in Ukraine have put energy back on the agenda for Europe in a way that has not been seen since the oil crisis of the 1970s. But the economics and business of supplying energy to Europe has a long and rich history going back to the nineteenth century. This book ...
The Economy of Ancient Egypt: State, Administration, Institutions
1st Edition
By Mahmoud Ezzamel
May 22, 2026
Taking ancient records as the starting point for analysis, this book theorises the state, administration and economy of ancient Egypt. The Egyptian state is theorised as an administrative field of material and symbolic powers with emphasis upon the latter because it has received scant attention in ...
Colonial Commodities in Historical Capitalism: Brazil for Export
1st Edition
Edited
By Gustavo Acioli Lopes, Leonardo Marques, Felipe Souza Melo
February 06, 2026
From the role of sugar in the early history of the colonial era to coffee in the long nineteenth century, commodities have played a crucial role in the development of the Brazilian economy. Drawing on the history of commodities approach, this book explores both the external and internal commodity ...