Raj, Prateek;
(2021)
Trade and information shocks, and market development: Evidence from early modern Europe.
SSRN: Amsterdam, Netherlands.
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Abstract
In this paper, I theorize that trade and information shocks were necessary for developing modern impersonal markets. I develop a dataset on the decline of merchant guilds in Europe and find that merchant guilds declined in the sixteenth century in cities on the Atlantic coast that adopted printing early. These cities were exposed to simultaneous trade and information shocks of Atlantic trade and the Gutenberg printing press in the late fifteenth century, making market opportunities outside of guilds lucrative, triggering market development. These cities also had greater printing of “bourgeois” content in the late sixteenth century.
| Type: | Working / discussion paper |
|---|---|
| Title: | Trade and information shocks, and market development: Evidence from early modern Europe |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.2139/ssrn.2994833 |
| Publisher version: | https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2994833 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Europe, Printing, Information Technology, Atlantic Trade, Guilds, Markets |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10204013 |
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