The Birth Of Modern Europe: Determining The Margins Of The Work Of Jan De Vries

Abstract

As the central concept in early modern Calvinism, predestination has played a historiographical role in much of Dutch history. In The First Modern Economy , Jan de Vries and his co-author, Ad van der Woude, present the geography of the Netherlands not as a static structure but rather as a dynamic agent in economic change. In modern times, construction tends to be a sensitive barometer to the winds of economic fortune, and the same was the case in early modern Europe. In The First Modern Economy , de Vries and van der Woude cite flexible labor markets as one of the key 'modern' foundations of Dutch economic infrastructure. De Vries suggests that the industrious revolution had important consequences for the history of women, as a greater reliance on the market for goods freed women for work outside of the home. Keywords: Europe; Jan de Vries; The First Modern Economy