Routledge Explorations in Economic History
About the Book Series
This long established series provides a platform for books which break new ground in the understanding of the development of the modern world economy. Equally rooted in economics and history, the series is not limited to any particular period or region. Individual titles focus on particular countries, key industries, themes, or international economic relations.
Inequality in Preindustrial Latin America: Economic and Social Patterns
1st Edition
Edited
By María Inés Moraes, Amílcar E. Challú
December 08, 2025
Inequality in Preindustrial Latin America is a groundbreaking examination of economic and social disparities in the region, spanning from pre-Columbian times to the mid-nineteenth century. This comprehensive volume is divided into two parts, offering a multidimensional analysis of inequality. Part ...
The Public Finances of a European Dictatorship: Portugal under the Estado Novo Regime
1st Edition
By Ricardo Ferraz
November 28, 2025
Contributing to the renewed interest in economic history in the role played by peripheral or smaller countries, this book provides a detailed analysis of Portuguese public finances during the Estado Novo regime (1933-1974) – a period marked by dictatorship, industrialization, internationalization, ...
Health, Nutrition and Inequality in Latin America: An Anthropometric History
1st Edition
Edited
By Manuel Llorca-Jaña, José Miguel Martínez Carrión, Ricardo Salvatore
September 30, 2025
Drawing on anthropometric data, this book examines the evolution of biological living standards of Latin American populations and evaluates the inequality of nutrition and health in the region in the modern era. Utilizing data from the 19th and 20th centuries, and providing broad coverage of Latin ...
A Global Financial History of Oil Crises
1st Edition
By Carlo Edoardo Altamura
August 22, 2025
In this book, Altamura analyses the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979, considering their impact on the world economy and subsequent reactions to the global instability. In terms of actors, the focus is on how international organisations such as the IMF, World Bank and OECD responded to the crisis, as ...
The Swiss National Bank: An Unconventional History
1st Edition
By Mikael Huber
July 25, 2025
Echoing new trends in central banking history, this book traces the story of the Swiss National Bank from the end of World War II, going beyond monetary policy and inflation to explore the full scope of the bank’s activities. Drawing on extensive archival research, it examines the broader landscape...
Tourism and Economic Development: Southern Europe through the 20th Century
1st Edition
Edited
By Patrizia Battilani, Carlos Larrinaga, Donatella Strangio
June 30, 2025
By the end of the 19th century, there were already some countries in southern Europe whose economies benefitted from the arrival of tourists. But it was during the 20th century, and particularly after the Second World War, that the phenomenon of mass tourism arrived and dramatically impacted the ...
The Economy of Classical Athens: Organization, Institutions and Society
1st Edition
By Emmanouil M. L. Economou
May 06, 2025
In parallel to the development of democracy, the Athenians of the Classical period established a series of sophisticated economic institutions for the time through which they developed a maritime and commercially oriented economy. This book provides a thorough analysis of this transformation and ...
A History of the Global Wheat Trade: Actors and Dynamics (1840-1914)
1st Edition
Edited
By Marco Bertilorenzi, Carlo Fumian, Giovanni Gozzini
April 29, 2025
During the second half of the 19th century, a new global market for wheat came to the fore. Ever since, scarce and perishable food has been transformed into a modern global commodity, millions of tons of which is sold, bought, and transported across the oceans, providing the “daily bread” for a ...
An Economic History of the Spanish Welfare State: The Political Economy of Social Policy from the Mid-19th Century to the Present
1st Edition
By Sergio Espuelas
April 15, 2025
This monograph analyses the evolution of the welfare state in Spain from qualitative and quantitative perspectives. It basically relies on estimates of public social spending from 1850 to the present and offers comparisons with the rest of Europe. As a whole, the volume sheds light on the ...
Global Trade in the Early Medieval World: The Movement of Wealth, Spice and Medicine, 700–1100
1st Edition
By Toslima Khatun
February 19, 2025
Exploring the movement of peoples, perfumes, and spices across vast distances in this period of medieval history across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, this book examines the role of Arab merchants in trade between and among the Caliphal and Carolingian elites. The study of the trade in perfumes...
Mining and Financial Imperialism: The Central African Copper Bonanza, c. 1890–1970
1st Edition
By Timo Särkkä
January 30, 2025
Mining finance houses were substantial public corporations with access to money markets in the City of London, the world’s leading capital market for mining. These institutions became dominant at the inception of colonial rule and, in varying forms, remained so throughout the twentieth century. ...
The Real Estate Market in the Roman World
1st Edition
Edited
By Marta García Morcillo, Cristina Rosillo-López
December 18, 2024
As it is today, the property market was a key and dynamic economic sector in Ancient Rome. Its study demands a deep understanding of Roman society, of the normative frameworks and the notions of wealth, value, identity and status that shaped individual and collective mentalities. This book takes a ...