In the 19th Century, economic growth was accompanied by large-scale structural change, known as industrialization, which fundamentally affected western societies. Even though industrialization is on the wane in some advanced economies and we are experiencing substantial structural changes again, the causes and consequences of these changes are inextricably linked with earlier industrialization.This means that understanding 19th Century industrialization helps us understand problems of contemporary economic growth. There is no recent study on economic developments in 19th Century Germany. So this concise volume, written specifically with students of German and economic history in mind, will prove to be most valuable, not least because of its wealth of statistical data. Toni Pierenkemper is Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Cologne. Richard Tilly is Emeritus Professor of Economic and Social History at the University of Münster.

Originally published in 1991 this book brings together 9 essays which address a number of central issues relating to the nature of German industrialisation, including the role of foreign competition in fostering technological change, the importance of market integration for economic development and the response of German banks to industrialisation. The book also provides an important corrective to the traditional interpretation of German industrialisation and reassesses the economic impact of the customs union (Zollverein). The reappraisal of some dominant themes in German economic and business history is distinctive in its explicit use of economic theory in historical analysis of long-term growth processes. It also emphasises the importance of sectoral analysis and illustrates the usefulness of a differential regional approach for understanding the process of German industrialisation.

Excerpt from Protection in Germany: A History of German Fiscal, Policy During the Nineteenth Century On the other hand, the exportation of raw material was forbidden in the interest of cheap production, for so much of economic insight he possessed, in Spite of his Mercantilistic fallacies, as to know it to be sounder policy to send abroad manufactured goods than raw material, since in the former case the foreigner exchanged his own products to a larger extent for labour, and by purchasing that labour maintained the strength and life behind it. So far did he carry this principle of productive independence that be imported silk worms into the country, so that silk need not be purchased from abroad. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This collection of essays covers themes central to German economic history while considering their interaction with other historical phenomena. Among the essays Borchardt considers Germany's late start as an industrial nation, the West-East developmental gradient, key patterns of long-term economic development, and unusual changes in the phenomena of business cycles. The collection also contains the essays which have become the subject of so-called 'Borchardt controversies', in which hypotheses are presented on the economic causes of the collapse of the parliamentary regime by 1929-30, at the very end of the 'crisis before the crisis'. He also explains why there were no alternatives to the economic policies of the slump, and in particular why there was no 'miracle weapon' against Hitler's seizure of power. These are among the most original and stimulating contributions of recent years to the economic history of modern Germany and will be of interest to anyone who ponders deeply the meaning of history.

German economic history in the industrial age has classically formed an important basis for the study of economic growth and industrialisation more generally. This book aims to introduce English-language readers to modern German economic history based on a selection of work by one of Germany's leading economic and business historians, Werner Plumpe, who places particular emphasis on the institutional structure of the economy. Plumpe's work demonstrates that the country's economic evolution can only be understood by paying close attention to institutional peculiarities, such as the shape of industrial relations and the dynamics of corporate decision-making. It also emphasises the importance of the interconnectedness of capital and labour in the German coordinated market economy and draws attention to individual events and decisions that may have driven long-term economic development, but are rarely considered in approaches that deal primarily with macroeconomic growth. German Economic and Business History in the 19th and 20th Century shows that Germany's economic history still warrants the application of an institutional view of economic transformation that is slightly different from the more formal perspectives dominant in the UK and the US. The book serves as a practical demonstration of a historicist approach to economic history introduced by the German Historical School a century ago, which still inspires large parts of German economic historiography./div