Includes bibliographical references (pages 479-508) and index.
Contents:
Part 4. Perspective and demise. Bread price regulation renewed and abolished, 1776-1855. Free trade in grain? -- The Dutch broodzetting : the introduction of a 'new system' of bread price regulation -- Administering and enforcing the new bread price regulations -- The Dutch 'peculiar institution' -- Part 2. Industrial organization : the producers in a regulated industry. Grain : the interaction of international trade and domestic production -- The milling sector : a trade harnessed to raison d'etat? -- The baking enterprise : efficiency versus convenience -- The structure of bread prices -- Part 3. Consumer welfare and consumer choice. Crise de subsistence : did price regulation shelter consumers from food crises? -- Choosing what to eat in the early modern era -- Bread consumption : a wheat bread revolution? -- Measuring the standard of living : a demand-side approach -- Part 4. Perspective and demise. Dutch bread price regulation in international perspective -- Bread price regulation renewed and abolished, 1776-1855.
Summary:
"A prime contemporary concern - how to maintain fair market relations - is addressed through this study of the regulation of bread prices. This was the single most important economic reality of Europe's daily life in the early modern period. Jan de Vries uses the Dutch Republic as a case study of how the market functioned and how the regulatory system evolved and acted. The ways in which consumer behavior adapted to these structures, and the state interacted with producers and consumers in the pursuit of its own interests, had major implications for the measurement of living standards in this period. The long-term consequences of the Dutch state's interventions reveal how capitalist economies, far from being the outcome of unfettered market economics, are inextricably linked with regulatory fiscal regimes. The humble loaf serves as a prism through which to explore major developments in early modern European society and how public market regulation affected private economic life"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.