UCL - Economic and social history from antiquity to the industrial revolution

[HIST1500]

[30h] 3 credits

This course is taught in the 1st semester.

Teacher(s): Michel Dorban, Patrick Marchetti

Language: French

Level: First

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods

Aims

In connection with political economy, sociology and quantitative methods in history courses, by the end of this course, students should be able to handle the various concepts of economic and social history, analyse the key moments in its economic and social evolution and its short as well as middle and long term movements; identify crises, their nature and factors, describe actors and contexts.

Main themes

Paying attention to chronological and geographical specificities, as well as sources and methods, this course presents the various concepts of economic and social history, while being particularly attentive to the evolution and most recent tendencies and debates of historiography. It analyses both the structures of the economic and social life of the period involved and the dynamics running through it and making it evolve, while paying attention to both permanence and discontinuity.

Content and teaching methods

P. Marchetti :
This first-level course is conceived as an introduction to the specifics of ancient economy in the three major stages of its development: the palatial economy, the particular case of the Greek city-state, and the administration of the Roman Empire by a centralized government that was the captive of the urban plebs.
We begin by tracing the origins of now largely obsolete theories on the distinguishing characteristics of the ancient economy. Next, we try to identify the specific features of each stage and to define its lasting aspects, knowing that Greek city-states first adopted and then adapted many elements of the palatial economy. At the same time, we examine how the Greek city-state also served as a substrate to nascent Rome. Rome was indeed founded on the model of a Greek city, before undergoing a dramatic transformation as it gradually evolved into an imperial capital. In this process it was influenced by the Near Eastern empires that it conquered.
Special attention will be devoted to the emergence of standards of value, from Ancient Mesopotamia to the end of the Roman Empire.