There is a striking chronological parallel between Germany’s transition from a post-Malthusian regime to modern economic growth and the formation of a modern nation-state between the late 1860s and the early 1880s, which culminated in the events of 1871.The central question of this book is whether and how such state formation did in fact contribute to economic development.
Twenty chapters written by leading experts in their respective fields deal with various aspects of the book’s main question. Together, they identify three channels by which national unification contributed to Germany’s economic development: (1) Creation of a nation-state completed a process of institutional Unification of a large inland area and thereby increased the integration of domestic markets. (2) Unification raised the capacity of the political system with respect to regulating complex domains, such as stock companies, patenting, and social insurance. (3) The emerging political regime of market-preserving federalism promoted the quality of economic institutions. Moreover, a set of chapters dealing with the experience of other European economies apart from Germany during the second half of the nineteenth century highlight additional factors in nineteenth-century economic development, most notably the first wave of modern globalization and economic geography.
Readers interested in the history of state building and the economic history of Germany and of Europe in general during the age of industrialization and globalization and students of the economic effects of political integration and decentralized state growth will all gain much from this book.
Author(s): Ulrich Pfister, Nikolaus Wolf
Series: Routledge Explorations in Economic History
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 390
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
Part I: Nation Formation and the Evolution of Economic Policy
2 National Identity, Economic Integration, and the Rise of Prussia
3 Intergovernmental Economic Cooperation and Institutional Integration Before the Founding of the German Empire
4 Politics, Administration, and Market Governance in a Federalist Environment: The German Empire in the 1870s and 1880s
Part II: The Formation of the Nation-State as a Structural and Institutional Turning Point
5 Germany’s Transition from a Post-Malthusian to a Modern Growth Regime, 1860s to 1880s
6 Fiscal Regime, Nation-Building, and State Capacity: Interactions Among Public Finances, National Unification, and Economic Development
7 Nation-State Formation and Market Integration: Postal Service, Telegraph System, and Railways
8 The Changing Capacity for Self-Description: The Creation of a National Statistical Service
9 The Gold Standard and the Reichsbank: The Transformation of the Monetary Regime
10 Patent Law and Technical Progress
Part III: Economic Development and Economic Institutions in Early Imperial Germany
11 Stock Exchanges, Banks, and the Panic of 1873
12 How Organised was Capitalism in the Empire? Lobby Associations, Cartels, and Interlocking Directorates
13 Social Insurance and its Consequences for Workers’ Living Conditions
14 Inequality and its Drivers in Germany, 1840–1914
15 Education Systems and Human Capital Accumulation
16 Globalization and Foreign Trade
Part IV: State and Economic Development in a European Perspective
17 Political Change and the Origins Of Protectionism: A French–German Comparison (1860s to 1890s)
18 The Economics of the Italian Unification
19 After Exit: The Habsburg Economy Since 1870
20 British Relative Economic Decline in the Aftermath of German Unification
Index
