English Economic History: c. 1500-1750

Abstract

The main general reference work is still E. Lipson, The Economic History of England, (Black, vol. 1,12th edn 1962; vols 2 and 3, 6th edn 1961). Vol. 1 is mainly concerned with the Middle Ages, though it contains material relevant to the sixteenth century; vols 2 and 3, subtitled The age of mercantilism, extend their coverage to the mid-eighteenth century. The work as a whole is full of useful information, though the arrangement is clumsy and the interpretation often dubious. Less detailed but providing more fluent and interesting narratives are J. H. Clapham, A Concise Economic History of Britain to 1750 (Camb., cl and pb 1949) and Charles Wilson, England's Apprenticeship, 1603-1763 (Longman, 1965), the latter being, to date, the only one of the textbooks covering part of this period to appear in any of the main series. Two useful and varied collections of essays are F. J. Fisher (ed.) Essays in the Economic and Social History of Tudor and Stuart England (Camb., 1961) and W. G. Hoskins, Provincial England (Macmillan, n. edn, cl and pb, 1966).