European Aristocracies and Colonial Elites: Patrimonial Management Strategies and Economic Development, 15th-18th Centuries

＂Aristocracies＂ or ＂Ancien régime colonial elites＂ from Adam Smith to Karl Marx and beyond, scholars have generally dismissed their role in the rise of the modern world, in economic development and capitalism. This book constitutes the first attempt to analyze the question in a more critical and historical way. It takes a directly comparative approach, covering countries from Peru to Russia and from Naples to England in the early modern period, up to the end of the 18th century.

Paul Janssens is Professor at the Katholieke Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium. Bartolomé Yun-Casalilla is Professor at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy.