Description
This book, a Catalan translation of the author’s doctoral thesis, published in English in 2012, makes a contribution to the long-standing but not exhausted debate on the transition to capitalism in Europe. The work investigates key aspects of this transformation: changes in land, the origins of industrialization, population growth, and the expansion of markets. The study critically participates in various debates in economic and social history, such as the transition to agrarian capitalism, the discussion of whether or not partnership should be considered a retarded form of land tenure, the theory of protoindustrialization, or those that they refer to demographic change. He also questions the thesis that the nuclear family in northwestern Europe was a superior model for industrialization than the prevailing family structures in southern Europe. The book not only argues that the core family could be as dynamic as the nuclear family when needed, but also, and more importantly, that attention must be paid to other institutions and factors that could condition family forms and decision-making processes within. the household units.