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. |
From inside the book
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Page xvii
... sixteenth century . Part 2 looks to the prevailing patterns of culture in the city in the later Middle Ages , focusing especially on ideas of community and authority . It con- siders how these concepts and the practices associated with ...
... sixteenth century . Part 2 looks to the prevailing patterns of culture in the city in the later Middle Ages , focusing especially on ideas of community and authority . It con- siders how these concepts and the practices associated with ...
Page xxvii
... felicities and inconsistencies in my prose . This book is not just for Eleanor ; it is Eleanor's as well as mine . David Harris Sacks January 1991 Arena and the Open Gate The sixteenth century was a Acknowledgments xxvii.
... felicities and inconsistencies in my prose . This book is not just for Eleanor ; it is Eleanor's as well as mine . David Harris Sacks January 1991 Arena and the Open Gate The sixteenth century was a Acknowledgments xxvii.
Page 1
... sixteenth century was a great age of mapmaking , and among the many surviving examples , city maps are especially common . An aerial view shows us a city , usually fortified , with high church steeples rising majestically above the ...
... sixteenth century was a great age of mapmaking , and among the many surviving examples , city maps are especially common . An aerial view shows us a city , usually fortified , with high church steeples rising majestically above the ...
Page 19
... century Bristol was , after London , the pre- eminent Atlantic port in England . Two centuries before , it had been ... sixteenth - century Bristolians themselves called " feats of marchaundises . " 2 Innovations , when they came , were ...
... century Bristol was , after London , the pre- eminent Atlantic port in England . Two centuries before , it had been ... sixteenth - century Bristolians themselves called " feats of marchaundises . " 2 Innovations , when they came , were ...
Page 24
... century , they easily rivaled commerce with France , taking the bulk of the city's cloth and other exports and ... sixteenth century brought the city into a bleak new season in its economic history . Every aspect of commerce suf- fered ...
... century , they easily rivaled commerce with France , taking the bulk of the city's cloth and other exports and ... sixteenth century brought the city into a bleak new season in its economic history . Every aspect of commerce suf- fered ...
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