An Economic History of the First German Unification: State Formation and Economic Development in a European Perspective

There is a striking chronological parallel between Germany’s transition from a post-Malthusian regime to modern economic growth and the formation of a modern nation-state between the late 1860s and the early 1880s, which culminated in the events of 1871.The central question of this book is whether and how such state formation did in fact contribute to economic development.

Twenty chapters written by leading experts in their respective fields deal with various aspects of the book’s main ques...