Abstract
The Great Enrichment of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries involved unprecedented increases in living standards across Europe and its offshoots. I argue that McCloskey’s characterization of the emergence of a bourgeois ethics and dignity as exogenous to the institutional environments is not convincing. Rather, the constitutional development of the selfgoverning medieval city was a necessary condition for the ethical and rhetorical change that McCloskey emphasizes. Furthermore, a bourgeois ethics and dignity were likely emerging in European cities as early as the twelfth century as a result of constitutional bargains. Given that literacy was largely confined to the clergy during the High Middle Ages, a paucity of premodern evidence for this emergence is not surprising.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 31-47 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Journal of Private Enterprise |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2017 |
Keywords
- Bourgeois revaluation
- Constitutions
- Great enrichment
- Institutions
- Medieval city
- Polycentric sovereignty