Affluence and Inequality in the Low Countries (Paperback)

Paperback. Did the inhabitants of `s-Hertogenbosch benefit from the economic ebband flow of the long sixteenth century (1500-1650)? Through this centralquestion, Affluence and Inequality addresses wider issues ofeconomic growth and decline in an (advanced) pre-industrial economy.Challenging traditional questions with innovative and ground-breakingmethods leads to a fresh perspective on the economic and social historyof the early modern Low Countries.Building on individual and household experience, connecting fiscal,financial, occupational and social dots, Jord Hanus shows that theso-called structural decline of the seventeenth-century Southern LowCountries was in fact a next step in a series of structuraltransformations characterizing the Low Countries during thepre-industrial period. Also, even though poverty was very real for aminority of the urban populace, for the majority, the sixteenth andseventeenth centuries brought agreeable living standards. In contrast toa range of southern European cities framed equal in poverty, the urbancentres of the Low Countries were both unequal and affluent. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.…