Economics in the History Mirror

Abstract

For writing economic history, standard theory is found to be excessively a priori and prone to assume away interesting phenomena. A particular defect is the lack of a mainstream theory of institutional change. Yet market analysis, although sometimes used unwisely as a substitute for historical description, does offer a standard of comparison which is absent from general history. The simpler concepts of economics also offer returns which the historian can scarcely afford to spurn.