The Widening Gate: Bristol and the Atlantic Economy, 1450-1700The history of capitalism is not to be explained in mere economic terms. David Harris Sacks here demonstrates that the modern Western economy was ushered in by broad processes of social, political, and cultural change. His study of Bristol as it opened it gate to national politics and the Atlantic economy reveals capitalism to be not just a species of economic order but a distinct form of life, governed by its own ethical norms and cultural practices. Availing himself of the methods of "thick description," socio-economic analysis, and political theory, Sacks examines the dynamics by which early modern Bristol moved from a medieval commercial economy to an early capitalist one. Throughout the period, the life of the city depended heavily on the successes of its great overseas merchants. But their quest for a monopoly of trade with the outside world, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Levant, came into conflict with the concerns of Bristol's artisans and retail shopkeepers. The battles of the two factions conditioned social and cultural developments in Bristol for two centuries. Locally, the conflict set the terms for developing conceptions of justice and authority. On a larger scale, it drew the community firmly into the great affairs of the realm and the wider world of expanding markets beyond. |
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Page xxii
... individuals were high- lighted at the calling of the first Protectorate Parliament , the elections for which in Bristol had produced victory for conservative merchants and outraged protest from the city's radicals and sectaries . Many ...
... individuals were high- lighted at the calling of the first Protectorate Parliament , the elections for which in Bristol had produced victory for conservative merchants and outraged protest from the city's radicals and sectaries . Many ...
Page 7
... individual and explicit grants " by the King in divers times ... con- firmed by letters patent under the great seale , " and operated under the important " restraynt that still all Civill causes may be Introduction 7.
... individual and explicit grants " by the King in divers times ... con- firmed by letters patent under the great seale , " and operated under the important " restraynt that still all Civill causes may be Introduction 7.
Page 9
... individual . Each focuses our attention on different issues : Wilson's on the relation of civic to national institutions ; Stowe's on the relation of the civic to the national community . The former stresses civic autonomy but ...
... individual . Each focuses our attention on different issues : Wilson's on the relation of civic to national institutions ; Stowe's on the relation of the civic to the national community . The former stresses civic autonomy but ...
Page 29
... individuals and groups unable to adapt , economically or intellectually , to the new circumstances . But they sometimes bring new opportunities as well . In examining this era of urban crisis in Bris- tol , we must keep our eyes open ...
... individuals and groups unable to adapt , economically or intellectually , to the new circumstances . But they sometimes bring new opportunities as well . In examining this era of urban crisis in Bris- tol , we must keep our eyes open ...
Page 56
... individuals such as Thomas Blanket who maintained large workshops in their own houses , containing " divers instruments for weaving " operated by a number of " weavers and other workmen . " Many of these men participated actively as mer ...
... individuals such as Thomas Blanket who maintained large workshops in their own houses , containing " divers instruments for weaving " operated by a number of " weavers and other workmen . " Many of these men participated actively as mer ...
Contents
19 | |
54 | |
Organizing the Society | 85 |
In a Worshipful State 14501650 | 129 |
The Navel of the World | 131 |
The Sanctification of Power | 160 |
Little Businesses | 194 |
Looking Backward | 225 |
A Shoemakers Holiday | 251 |
Registering the Pilgrimage | 278 |
The Spirit World | 304 |
The Widening Gate of Capitalism | 331 |
Abbreviations | 363 |
Notes | 365 |
Index | 453 |
The Capitalism of the Spirit 16501700 | 249 |
Other editions - View all
The Widening Gate: Bristol and the Atlantic Economy, 1450-1700 David Harris Sacks Limited preview - 1991 |
The Widening Gate: Bristol and the Atlantic Economy, 1450-1700 David Harris Sacks Limited preview - 1991 |
The Widening Gate: Bristol and the Atlantic Economy, 1450-1700 David Harris Sacks Limited preview - 2023 |
Common terms and phrases
aldermen Aldworth American Andalusia Apprentice Book apprenticed apprentices authority Barbados Bishop Book Bristol Common Bristol Record Bristol's trade Bristolians Cambridge Carus-Wilson chant chap Church city's civic cloth colonial commerce Common Council Proceedings common councillors Company crafts customs dissenters E. A. Wrigley early modern early seventeenth century economic Edgeworth election England English exports fifteenth Gascony gild haue History Iberian peninsula Ibid important indentures industries J. G. A. Pocock James John John Whitson king Latimer leading entrepreneurs letters patent Lollards London mayor McGrath membership Merchant Venturers nomic occupations ordinances overseas trade Oxford Parliament percent period port profit Quakers religious retailers Ricart Robert Sacks sectaries servants ships shopkeepers sixteenth century Smythe soapmakers social Society and Politics Society of Merchant Spanish sugar Thomas tion tobacco total known town University Press urban wares weavers Whitson William wine woad