Description: This is a comprehensive long-run history of economic and political change in the Iberian Peninsula. Beginning with the development of the old medieval kingdoms, it goes on to explore two countries, Portugal and Spain, which during the early modern period possessed vast empires and played an essential role in the global economic and political developments. It traces how and why both countries began to fall behind during the first stages of industrialization and modern economic growth only to achieve remarkable economic development during the second half of the twentieth century. Written by a team of leading historians, the book sheds new light on all aspects of economic history from population, agriculture, manufacturing and international trade to government, finance and welfare. The book includes extensive new data and will be an essential work of reference for scholars of Portugal and Spain and also of comparative European economic development.
Brief description: Pedro Lains was a Senior Research Professor at Universidade de Lisboa. He was the author of An Economic History of Portugal (2016), A History of Public Banking in Portugal in the 19th and 20th Centuries (2021) and editor of An Agrarian History of Portugal (2017). He was president of the Portuguese Economic and Social History Association from 2003-2007.
Review Quotes: 'This ambitious project to provide an up to date economic history of the lands of the Iberian peninsula and of their overseas settlements and colonies from the Middle Ages to the present is a remarkable achievement. Leading specialists analyze and revise our understanding of Spain and Portugal in relation to the rest of Europe and as a springboard for a global economy--an indispensable starting point for the next generation of historians.' Stuart Schwartz, Yale University