Non-Market Institutions and the Growth of Europe

本研究的目的是分析12世纪和13世纪在热那亚和英国出现的非市场制度的出现、运作和演变。对贸易和贸易效率至关重要的两种交易类型将进行分析。要审查的第一笔交易是提供处理国外货物所需的服务，而第二笔交易是管理国外货物交换条款的组织（例如，信贷安排）。在这两个历史时期，交易都不可能通过匿名市场组织起来，也不可能受到法律制度的监督。将进行广泛的文件检索，以查明管理这些交易的机构的性质。为了便于实证研究，本文将构建与这些交易相关的组织问题的信息不对称模型。这项研究很重要，因为这项研究背离了经济史上强调市场机制对欧洲增长贡献的悠久传统。因此，这项研究可能为欧洲发展进程提供重要的新线索，这将增强我们对从欠发达经济体向较发达经济体过渡的总体理解。

The purpose of this research is to analyze the emergence, operation, and evolution of non-market institutions which arose in Genoa and England during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Two types of transactions central to trade and trade efficiency will be analyzed. The first transaction to be examined is the provision of the services required in handling goods abroad, while the second transaction is the organization of the provisions governing exchange of goods abroad (e.g., credit arrangements). Neither transaction could be organized through the anonymous market nor supervised by the legal system in these two historical episodes. An extensive documentary search will be conducted in order to identify the nature of the institutions that governed these transactions. To facilitate the empirical research, asymmetric information models of the organizational problems associated with these transactions will be constructed. This research is important because the study departs from a long tradition in economic history that emphasized the contribution of the market mechanism to European growth. Thus, this research may shed important new light on the European development process which will enhance our understanding of the transition from less developed to more developed economies in general.