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Historisk tidskrift 126:3 • 2006

Innehåll (Contents) 2006:3

Uppsatser (Articles)

Konstitutioner, frihandel och tillväxt i tidigmoderna nordeuropeiska stadsstater En komparativ institutionell analys av Hamburg och Lübeck

Erik Lindberg

Fulltext (pdf)

Summary

Constitutions, Free Trade and Economic Growth. A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Hamburg and Lübeck in the Early Modern Period

From Montesquieu and Adam Smith we learn that economic development depends on the form of government. The form of government most conducive to economic growth is a government ruled by a constitution that makes property secure and arbitrary confiscations costly. Although such governments have been shown to have superior growth records, despotic and autocratic regimes were the general rule in early modern Europe. This article presents some evidence of how stable political regimes could arise in early modern city-states. The constitutional development in two of the famous Hansa cities – Hamburg and Lübeck – is analysed. Hamburg arose from a minor town to a major trading centre during the 16th century, while Lübeck underwent a secular stagnation. It is argued that Hamburg’s rise to prominence was the result of a constitutional development that made it impossible for any group to monopolise the political and economic powers in order to shift rents to their advantage. In Lübeck, on the other hand, extensive economic privileges were granted to a small circle of wealthy merchants and as a result the city stagnated economically despite its close proximity to the major markets in Western Europe. The article’s conclusions confirm the claim made by classic political economists that the economic growth rate – measured here as an increase of the urban population – was more favourable in republican governments based on political pluralism than in autocratic regimes.

Keywords

constitutions, Hansa, early modern, Hamburg, Lübeck, institutional change, urban history