Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


toledo1230755671.pdf (1.14 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Paradigm and Praxis: Seventeenth-Century Mercantilism and the Age of Liberalism

Irvin, Jeffery L., Jr.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1230755671

Abstract Details

2008, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, History.
At the end of the seventeenth century Western Europe, and perhaps the wholeworld, had experienced a ‘general crisis’ within the economy. It is the purpose of this dissertation to analyze the responses of England and Portugal with respect to these changes. Within the conceptual framework of the world-capitalist system, which arguably began in the sixteenth century with European expansion, we can see that not all were able to respond effectively to the changes that were taking place. While Portugal had dominated for nearly a century the trade between Asia and Europe that position of dominance was quickly eroded as a result of Spanish domination from 1580 through 1640, the virtual destruction of its navy, and most importantly—as this dissertation will argue—the continued adherence to a socio-political and intellectual perspective that would not meet the challenges of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. England, on the other hand, would develop a thoroughly secular perspective of the world which was made possible by the full acceptance of humanist scholarship, the break with the Roman Catholic Church, the alternative to canon law in the form of common law, and the development of a premier naval force that would allow them to dominate trade around the world. Had Portugal been able to break free from the seigneurial system of land tenure and the stilted intellectual tradition of scholasticism they might have had a chance to participate fully in the capitalist economic development of the world. However, Portugal’s ability to do so was limited not only by their socio-political and intellectual milieu but also by the contstraints of geography, culture, and international politics. It is for this reason that this work argues that the structural impediments to change in Portugal were simply too overwhelming for them to seriously contemplate participation in the world-capitalist system; and, that even had they been able to eliminate these domestic impediments they would still have been faced with a whole host of international problems that would have diminished their capacity to respond to the changes brought about by the rise of the world-capitalist system.
Glenn Ames, PhD (Committee Chair)
Richard Boyer, PhD (Committee Member)
Michael Jakobson, PhD (Committee Member)
David Black, PhD (Committee Member)
330 p.
Economic History; History; Social Structure
seventeenth century mercantilism; liberalism; general crisis

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Irvin, Jr., J. L. (2008). Paradigm and Praxis: Seventeenth-Century Mercantilism and the Age of Liberalism [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1230755671

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Irvin, Jr., Jeffery. Paradigm and Praxis: Seventeenth-Century Mercantilism and the Age of Liberalism. 2008. University of Toledo, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1230755671.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Irvin, Jr., Jeffery. "Paradigm and Praxis: Seventeenth-Century Mercantilism and the Age of Liberalism." Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1230755671

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1230755671
6,425
© 2008, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.