Big Data and “New” Global History: Global Goods and Trade Networks in Early Modern China and Europe

This paper introduces an innovative method applied to global (economic) history using the tools of digital humanities through the design and development of the GECEM Project Database (www.gecem.eu; www.gecemdatabase.eu). This novel database goes beyond the static Excel files frequently used by conventional scholarship in early modern history studies to mine new historical data through a bottom-up process and analyse the global circulation of goods, consumer behaviour, and trade networks in early modern China and Europe. Macau and Marseille, as strategic entrepôts for the redistribution of goods, serve as the main case study. This research is framed within a polycentric approach to analyse the connectivity of south Chinese and European markets with trade zones of Spain, France, South America, and the Pacific.

Introduction

After a discussion of the twentieth anniversary issue, the author of the book which is the subject of our “round table” review of this twenty-fifth anniversary issue: Merry Wiesner Hanks’ What is Early Modern History (2021) is introduced. This is followed by a brief account of the rationale behind the foundation of the JEMH in the 1990s and how, from the very first issue, the journal has tried to decolonize our understanding of the period 1300–1800, as exemplified by Antony Black’s warning that: “we should stop selling off second-hand concepts to unsuspecting non-European cultures.” Passing comment is made on the chronological (as well as geographical) breadth of the coverage of the JEMH which accords well with the recent merger of the Centers for Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of Minnesota (to form the Center for Premodern Studies). At a time when the advocacy of the study of pre-modern history is vital as never before, this situates the JEMH very well. The introduction closes with a series of acknowledgements and thanks not only directed to the editorial team both in Minnesota and Leiden for the support they have given me, as editor-in-chief, since July 2010, but also to the numerous authors and readers of manuscripts who have made the journal what it is today.

Popular and Public History

This essay offers a reflection on the role public and popular history play in creating understanding and awareness about early modern history. It considers Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks’ chapter “Popular and Public History” in her book, What is Early Modern History, and uses Wiesner-Hanks’ ideas as a starting point to expand understanding of early modern scholarly identity, the role museums and historic sites could play in creating broad awareness about the early modern period, and why podcasts provide historians with a powerful tool to help non-historians better connect with and understand the early modern period.

Religious, Intellectual, and Cultural History

Inspired by Merry Wiesner-Hanks’ What is Early Modern History? chapter on religious, intellectual, and cultural history, this reflection considers the current state of these three subfields. It advocates for early modern historians to expand their bounding of religion beyond Christianity and Europe. It is also a call to extend the list of agents credited with the production of science, Enlightenment, and “culture.”

The Journal of Early Modern History, 1994–2010: Some Personal Recollections

When Simon Ditchfield asked me for a contribution to the anniversary issue, it seemed the right occasion for a brief origin story, with reference to some of the many colleagues who had a hand in launching The Journal of Early Modern History.

What is Early Modern History?: An Origin Story

What Is Early Modern History?, a volume in the Polity Press “What Is History?” series, is an origin story of the ways historians and those in other fields have seen – and contested – the roots of the modern world and have seen – and contested – whether the period between 1450 and 1800 forms some sort of coherent whole. This essay explains the book’s conceptualization and organization into various subfields, including economic, social, intellectual, cultural, gender, Atlantic world, and environmental history, and responds to the other essays in this forum. The essay and the book discuss the marks of an emerging modernity that have been advanced in different subfields, and ways these have been questioned, nuanced, and rethought. No matter what aspect of life historians investigate, they are likely to see the roots of modernity there, or of multiple modernities, varied and contingent on culture and historical circumstances.

Economic and Social History

The last quarter of a century has been one of great changes for the field of early modern economic history. My argument is that, in this period, early modern economic history has shown a remarkably innovative spirit. However, this is most apparent not at the core of the discipline, but in how economic history has interacted with other branches of early modern history, be they social, cultural, environmental, or material. This argument is supported by the analysis of quantitative evidence. I then move on to consider two important developments in early modern economic history since the late 1990s: global economic history and the history of consumption and trade. This article concludes with a reflection on recent developments in the so-called New History of Capitalism (NHC) and on studies of pre-modern inequality, sustainability, and the environment.

Weber’s ‘Ackerbürgerstadt’ in the Nineteenth Century

In his treatise “The City”, Max Weber introduced the concept of the Ackerbürgerstadt (agrarian city), a type of city whose economic system is primarily rooted in agricultural production. Since then, Weber’s concept has been frequently applied to historical studies on urban economies, especially in the Middle Ages and early modern history. However, by taking a closer look at the socioeconomic fabric of small towns in the prelude to industrialization, many characteristics of Weber’s Ackerbürgerstadt still seem to be applicable. The paper investigates the development of the economic system of the rural small town of Zwettl, situated in the northwestern part of Lower Austria. Zwettl and its surrounding region were left mostly untouched by economic progress. The city had one of the lowest growth rates in Lower Austria and was excluded from the infrastructural expansions of the industrial period. However, Zwettl did not dwindle into a remnant of pre-industrial times. Changes in the social and economic fabric happened on a more subtle level. Structural changes, for example in the agricultural sector, impacted long-term business opportunities, household management, and market development in Zwettl—for better or worse. The paper offers a case study-based examination of Weber’s Ackerbürgerstadt. It questions the rigid separation between urban and household economy, as well as the functional distinction between the city and its hinterland. Thus, the paper provides a contribution to the historical exploration of the socioeconomic development of small towns in the rural periphery.

Printing the Levellers: Clandestine Print, Radical Propaganda, and the New Model Army

this article uses techniques of typographical analysis to identify the print houses that secretly produced the most important writings associated with the incipient ‘Leveller’ grouping as it took shape in 1646–47. It examines the key printers, Jane Coe and Thomas Paine, while illuminating the dynamics of the clandestine book trade of the 1640s. It then shows that these same printers acted as stationers of choice for the emergent New Model Army agitators, producing works such as the The Case of the Army Truly Stated and An Agreement of the People, among other titles. The resulting account sheds light on the origins and nature of the Leveller movement, and allows for discussion of the connections between the Levellers and the New Model Army. More broadly, this article highlights the centrality of printers as political protagonists and suggests that new modes of bibliographical analysis can address major problems in early-modern history.

Review of The Bukharan Crisis: A Connected History of 18th-Century Central Asia

The Bukharan Crisis: AConnected History of 18th-Century Central Asia deconstructsthe context of Bukharan crisis in the eighteenth century referring to theorieson the global history and the connected history other than a myriad of previousassumptions which attribute the fall of the Bukhara Khanate to the isolationand decline of the early modern Central Asia. But through the lens of Scott C. Levi,Central Asia was neither isolated nor in decline, so he further addresses theBukharan crisis from several different perspectives. On the whole, this book comprisesfour chapters and it elaborates the real historical situation and the challengeBukhara faced in Central Asia’s early modern history around some thematicdiscussions on the image of Silk Road and the history of the Bukhara Khanate.Levi argues that Central Asia actually became more deeply integrated into theoutside world in multiple ways, and it’s far from isolated from the world history.