Eltjo Buringh

The Rise and Decline of European Parliaments, 1188–1789

Starting in Spain in the twelfth century, parliaments gradually spread over the Latin West. The paper quantifies the activity of medieval and early-modern parliaments, which also makes it possible to analyse the influence of this institutional innovation. In the early-modern period parliaments declined in influence in southern and central Europe and gained in importance in the Netherlands and Britain. From the sixteenth century onwards active parliaments, which function as constraints on the executive, had a positive effect on city growth and appear to have been instrumental in stabilizing the currency. Active pre-1800 parliaments also enhanced the quality of democratic institutions in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Charting the “Rise of the West”: Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries

This article estimates the development of manuscripts and printed books in Western Europe over the course of thirteen centuries. As these estimates show, medieval and early modern book production was a dynamic economic sector, with an average annual growth rate of around one percent. Rising production after the middle of the fifteenth century probably resulted from lower book prices and higher literacy. To explain the dynamics of medieval book production, we provide estimates for urbanization rates and for the numbers of universities and monasteries. Monasteries seem to have been most important in the early period, while universities and laypeople dominated the later medieval demand for books.

From Baghdad to London: Unraveling Urban Development in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, 800–1800

This paper empirically investigates why, between 800 and 1800, the urban center of gravity moved from the Islamic world to Europe. Using a large new city-specific data set covering Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, we unravel the role of geography and institutions in determining long-run city development in the two regions. We find that the main reasons for the Islamic worlds stagnation and Europes long-term success are specific to each region: any significant positive interaction between cities in the two regions hampered by their different main religious orientation. Together, the long-term consequences of a different choice of main transport mode (camel versus ship) and the development of forms of local participative government in Europe that made cities less dependent on the state explain why Europes urban development eventually outpaced that in the Islamic world.

IS SO2 A CAUSATIVE FACTOR FOR THE PM-ASSOCIATED MORTALITY RISKS IN THE NETHERLANDS?

Associations between serious health risks and PM have been found in numerous studies, including studies in the Netherlands (Verhoeff et al., 1996). More recent European studies have also found associations with gaseous components (Katsouyanni et al., 1997; Hoek et al., 1997), of which SO2 is one of the gasses. A recent report in the United Kingdom (COMEAP, 1998) concludes that in ambient air SO2 leads to an increase in total mortality of 0.6% per 10 μg/m3. Although these statistical associations have been found, it remains questionable as to whether or not the associations are causal. A careful analysis of a 9-yr Dutch time series (Hoek et al., 1997) by successive exclusion of the highest concentrations indicates that SO2 is probably not causally associated with the health effects, but that it is correlated. A separate analysis of the mortality over different 3-yr periods indicates that in the first 3 yr SO2 led to a significantly lower relative risk than in the last 3 yr, which had the lowest SO2 concentrations. The conclusion that in the Netherlands SO2 does not seem to be a causative factor for PM associated health effects is substantiated by further circumstantial evidence, in combination with biological arguments, indicating that a factor correlating with SO2 (probably PM) might explain the observed associations with total mortality.

Mills, cranes, and the great divergence: the use of immovable capital goods in western Europe and the Middle East, ninth to sixteenth centuries

This article contributes to the ongoing debate on the causes of the great divergence by comparing the use of expensive labour-saving capital goods—water-mills, windmills, and cranes—in medieval western Europe and the Middle East. Using novel ways of measuring, we find that whereas the use of these goods increased in Europe, in the Middle East their prevalence decreased, or they were not used at all. We investigate several possible explanations and reject most of them, including religion, geography, technological knowledge, and disparities in wages and cost of capital. Our analysis shows that differences in lordship systems and the security of property rights best explain the patterns found.

Medieval Manuscript Production in the Latin West

Drawing on statistical techniques and samples this book offers an estimate of medieval production rates of manuscripts in the Latin West. Such information is a helpful production indicator for a period of which we have so little other quantitative data.