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.

Cover -- Half Title Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Original title Page -- Original copyright Page -- Contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- Preface -- 1 The Paradigm of German Industrialisation : Some Recent Issues and Debates in the Modern Historiography of German Industrial Development -- 2 Foreign Competition and Technological Change : British Exports and the Modernisation of the German Iron Industry from the 1820s to the 1860s -- 3 Tariffs and Market Structure : The German Zollverein as a Model for Economic Integration -- 4 Banking and Economic Growth : Banks and Industry in Germany in the Nineteenth-Century and their Changing Relationship During Industrialisation -- 5 Cyclical Trends and the Market Response: Long Swings in Urban Development in Germany, 1850-1914 -- 6 Sectoral Performance and Economic Development: The Backward Linkages of the German Pig-Iron Industry, 1871-1913, as a Factor in Macro-Economic Growth -- 7 'New Industries' and the Role of the State : The Development of Electrical Power in South Germany From c.1880 to the 1920s -- 8 The Political Framework of Structural Modernisation: The I.g. Farbenindustrie AG, 1904-1945 -- 9 Germany and the International Economy the Role of the German Inflation in Overcoming the 1920/1 United States and World Depression -- 10 Occupation Policy and Post-War Reconstruction : British Manpower Policy in the Ruhr Coal-Mines, 1945-1947, and West German Economic Recovery -- List of Contributors -- Index

In From Old Regime to Industrial State, Richard H. Tilly and Michael Kopsidis question established thinking about Germany’s industrialization. While some hold that Germany experienced a sudden breakthrough to industrialization, the authors instead consider a long view, incorporating market demand, agricultural advances, and regional variations in industrial innovativeness, customs, and governance. They begin their assessment earlier than previous studies to show how the 18th-century emergence of international trade and the accumulation of capital by merchants fed commercial expansion and innovation. This book provides the history behind the modern German economic juggernaut.

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.