{"product_id":"the-wealth-of-a-nation-9780691247489","title":"The Wealth of a Nation","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow the development of legal and financial institutions transformed Britain into the world’s first capitalist country\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eModern capitalism emerged in England in the eighteenth century and ushered in the Industrial Revolution, though scholars have long debated why. Some attribute the causes to technological change while others point to the Protestant ethic, liberal ideas, and cultural change. \u003ci\u003eThe Wealth of a Nation\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the crucial developments in legal and financial institutions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that help to explain this dramatic transformation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOffering new perspectives on the early history of capitalism, Geoffrey Hodgson describes how, for the emerging British economy, pressures from without were as important as evolution from within. He shows how intensive military conflicts overseas forced the state to undertake major financial, administrative, legal, and political reforms. The resulting institutional changes not only bolstered the British war machine—they fostered the Industrial Revolution. Hodgson traces how Britain’s war capitalism led to an expansion of its empire and a staggering increase in the slave trade, and how the institutional innovations that radically transformed the British economy were copied and adapted by countries around the world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA landmark work of scholarship, \u003ci\u003eThe Wealth of a Nation\u003c\/i\u003e sheds light on how external factors such as war gave rise to institutional arrangements that facilitated finance, banking, and investment, and offers a conceptual framework for further research into the origins and consolidation of capitalism in England.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Geoffrey M. Hodgson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42960210165878,"sku":"9780691247489","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0671\/1374\/6550\/files\/CoreSourceHub_08888aeb-4b93-42f7-a094-edde78f58c23.jpg?v=1778971327","url":"https:\/\/ingramacademic.com\/products\/the-wealth-of-a-nation-9780691247489","provider":"Ingram Academic \u0026 Professional","version":"1.0","type":"link"}