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 xx
... lived there , to see how the events that affected them unfolded , and to account for why they took the course they did . Hence , our scholarly disputes normally are more about whether we have gotten the story right than about the ...
... lived there , to see how the events that affected them unfolded , and to account for why they took the course they did . Hence , our scholarly disputes normally are more about whether we have gotten the story right than about the ...
Page 3
... lived by trade and was thus connected to the wider world . But the latter with its gate is the better emblem . It stresses that a late medieval and. Fig . 2. Early Modern Bristol's Coat of Arms . ( Detail from James Millerd's View of ...
... lived by trade and was thus connected to the wider world . But the latter with its gate is the better emblem . It stresses that a late medieval and. Fig . 2. Early Modern Bristol's Coat of Arms . ( Detail from James Millerd's View of ...
Page 7
... lived by ordinary men and women at home . Nothing human — or inhuman , for that matter — is alien to us anymore . Nevertheless , there is something anachronistic in the approach of the localists , since it relies upon an understanding ...
... lived by ordinary men and women at home . Nothing human — or inhuman , for that matter — is alien to us anymore . Nevertheless , there is something anachronistic in the approach of the localists , since it relies upon an understanding ...
Page 12
... lived away from the centers of action . Such a history tells us sto- ries that " enlighten us about the common run of chaps " as they lived " at their home address [ es ] . " 12 Introduction.
... lived away from the centers of action . Such a history tells us sto- ries that " enlighten us about the common run of chaps " as they lived " at their home address [ es ] . " 12 Introduction.
Page 54
... lived exclusively by their large - scale dealings in foreign commerce . New markets and new commodities inevitably called forth new strate- gies from traders for winning profit and new relationships within the trading community . In the ...
... lived exclusively by their large - scale dealings in foreign commerce . New markets and new commodities inevitably called forth new strate- gies from traders for winning profit and new relationships within the trading community . In the ...
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