PART II. COMMERCE AND COMMERCIAL POLICY: I. General and Historical Works... PREFACE STRANGELY enough, what must be recognized as one of the most important periods in the history of mankind, is one which, as a whole, has received comparatively little attention from historians. For mediæval social history there are numerous histories and textbooks which survey the whole field, as well as Gross' guide and Hubert Hall's bibliography. Special studies abound, and the source material has been made available to a large degree through the publications of antiquarian and historical societies. In the field of modern English social history, much less has been accomplished. Cunningham's Growth of English Industry and Commerce has been supplemented by numerous valuable monographs by economists, but no adequate survey exists of the sources of a period when improved printing-presses were supplying a readingpublic, newly awakened to an interest in economic and social questions, with an output almost staggering in amount. England of the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was the setting for the origin of most of what characterizes modern industrial society. The intricate nature of the interrelating social forces is reflected in the literature of the period. To provide some guide to the maze would seem essential before the entire field can be adequately treated in an intensive, scholarly way. At the suggestion of Professor Shotwell, and because no such guide seemed to be forthcoming from the hands of scholars, the author consented to attempt at least in slight part to fill the need. But the task has proven heavier even than was anticipated. Because of the amount of labor already performed, and the peculiar nature of the work, it has been decided to seek for it the sanction of the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University. With this in view, the following pages have been printed, not with the idea that they alone are offered for the degree, but simply as a sample of the kind of work being done, the amount and character of which is at present to be judged from the manuscript and notes. The completed volume, it is expected, will appear in Professor Shotwell's series, "Records of Civilization." |