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 xvii
... later Middle Ages , focusing especially on ideas of community and authority . It con- siders how these concepts and the practices associated with them changed during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries . In Part 3 , the story ...
... later Middle Ages , focusing especially on ideas of community and authority . It con- siders how these concepts and the practices associated with them changed during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries . In Part 3 , the story ...
Page xix
... later ? " This view of historical time trans- forms historicism into a methodology , a source of research questions rather than of metaphysical certainties . 6 Employed in this heuristic fashion , historicism of Bloch's kind simul ...
... later ? " This view of historical time trans- forms historicism into a methodology , a source of research questions rather than of metaphysical certainties . 6 Employed in this heuristic fashion , historicism of Bloch's kind simul ...
Page xxi
... later sixteenth and the early seventeenth century . Of course this was only an artifact of the chronological limits of the study ; the Civil War and its aftermath almost immediately undid nearly all that happened . Upon completing my ...
... later sixteenth and the early seventeenth century . Of course this was only an artifact of the chronological limits of the study ; the Civil War and its aftermath almost immediately undid nearly all that happened . Upon completing my ...
Page xxii
... later seventeenth century and wanted to know some- thing about its system for registering indentured servants bound for the American plantations . During my research I had made some notes about the origins of this system in 1654 but had ...
... later seventeenth century and wanted to know some- thing about its system for registering indentured servants bound for the American plantations . During my research I had made some notes about the origins of this system in 1654 but had ...
Page xxiii
... Later a Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship from Harvard funded my first research trip to British archives . Addi- tional research was furthered in part by other generous grants from Harvard , from the American Philosophical Society , and ...
... Later a Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship from Harvard funded my first research trip to British archives . Addi- tional research was furthered in part by other generous grants from Harvard , from the American Philosophical Society , and ...
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