ABSTRACT
In contrast with the centuries that preceded and followed, the distinctive themes in the economic history of Europe in the eighteenth century seem at first sight more difficult to define. Whereas the economic history of seventeenth century Europe is still dominated by the debates on the nature and significance of the great economic and demographic crises of the era, the economic history of the eighteenth century has long been overshadowed by the search for the origins of the industrial revolutions that in the following century would transform first the European economies and then those of the entire planet.
