Historical Developments of Economic Concepts

Nathan Rosenberg and L. E. Birdzell in their book How the West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation of the Industrial World attempt to explain the western world's rise to today's current wealth standards. They try to use economic history to show the relationship between past historical innovations and the rise of capitalism. Their premise is that the growth of western wealth rests on innovations in trade, technology, and organization in combination with an accumulation of more and more capital, labor, and applied natural resources beginning during the Middle Ages (20). The authors present their understanding of the historical development of economic concepts and institutions in a logical manner. Using the evidence that they present, their conclusions are logical and appropriate. The difficulty lies in the historical evidence that the Rosenberg and Birdzell neglect to consider and their choice of claiming that the foundations of capitalism lay in the political and military institutions of the Middle Ages. As most students of economics realize almost any outcome can be predetermined if the economist can choose his own assumptions from which to work. The assumptions and historical picture that Rosenberg and Birdzell have chosen to present are not complete or accura

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, and law not on the basis of negotiation (38) is too simplistic. The assumption that a person's birth dictated his life is also incorrect. Studies, census and ecclesiastical records, have shown surprising movement of people between occupations and locations during the Middle Ages. The impact of religion is absent from the causes of development of capitalism. Rosenberg and Birdzell claim that the Middle Ages was the time when the foundations of capitalism were laid, but yet they do not account for the impact that the Christian church had on the population of Europe at this time. The impact of Jews in occupations, especially banking and money lending, are excluded from this account of the development of capitalism. A detailed study of the village of Montaillou, in what is now southern France, from ecclesiastical records recorded during the thirteenth century gives credence to the lack of adequate historical knowledge of the Middle Ages which is responsible for erroneous and incomplete assumptions by Rosenberg and Birdzell on the development of capitalism in the western world. The surface appearance of the village of Montaillou during the fourteenth century coincides with the authors' view of life in the Middle Ages. It was
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Approximate Word count = 1815
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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