Table of Contents
Introduction
Preface
1 WEIGHT OF NUMBERS
Guessing the world population
Ebb and flow, The lack of statistics, How to
calculate?, The equivalence of Europe and China,
World population, Questionable figures,
The relationship between the centuries, The
old inadequate explanations, Climatic rhythms.
A scale of reference
Towns, armies and navies, A France prematurely
overpopulated, Density of population and level
of civilization, Other points inferred from
Gordon W. Hewes' map, Wild men and animals.
The eighteenth century: watershed of biological regimes
Preserving the balance, Famine, Epidemics, The plague,
The cycle of diseases, I400-1800: a long-lasting biological
ancien regime.
The many against the few
Against the barbarians, The disappearance of the
great nomads before the seventeenth century,
The conquest of space, The resistance of cultures,
Civilization against civilization.
2 DAILY BREAD
Wheat
Wheat and other grains, Wheat and crop rotation,
Low yields, compensations and disasters,
Increased cultivation and higher yields,
Local and international trade in grain, Grain
and calories, The price of grain and the standard
of living, Bread of the rich, bread and gruel of
the poor, To buy bread, or bake it at home?,
Grain rules Europe.
Rice
Rice cultivated dry and in paddy fields, The
miracle of the paddy fields, The importance of nee.
Maize
Well-ascertained origins, Maize and American
civilizations.
The dietary revolutions of the eighteenth century
Maize outside America, Potatoes: a great future,
Eating other people's bread.
The rest of the world
The people of the hoe, The primitive peoples.
3 SUPERFLUITY AND SUFFICIENCY
FOOD AND DRINK
Eating habits: luxury and the foods of the masses
A belated luxury, Carnivorous Europe, The decline
in meat consumption after 1550, Europe's privileged
position, The extravagances of the table, Laying the
table, The slow adoption of good manners, At the table
of Christ, Everyday foods: salt, Everyday foods: dairy
products, fats, eggs, Everyday seafoods, Cod fishing,
The decline in the vogue for pepper after 1650,
Sugar conquers the world.
Drinks, stimulants and drugs
Water, Wine, Beer, Cider, The belated popularity of
alcohol in Europe, Alcoholism outside Europe,
Chocolate, tea, coffee, Stimulants: the glories
of tobacco.
4 SUPERFLUITY AND SUFFICIENCY:
HOUSES, CLOTHES AND FASHION
Houses throughout the world
Rich building materials: stone and brick, Less favoured
building materials: wood, earth, fabric, Rural dwellings
in Europe, Urban houses and dwellings,The urbanized
countryside.
Interiors
The lack of possessions of the poor, Traditional
civilizations and unchanging interiors, The double
pattern of Chinese furniture, In Black Africa, The
West and its many different types of furniture,
Floors, walls, ceilings, doors and windows, Chimneys
and fireplaces, Furnaces and stoves, Furniture makers
and the vanities of buyers, The domestic interior seen
whole, Luxury and comfort.
Costume and fashion
When society stood still, If all the world were poor ... ,
Europe and the craze for fashion, Is fashion frivolous?,
The geography of textiles, Fashion in the broad sense:
long-term change, Conclusions?
5 THE SPREAD OF TECHNOLOGY:
SOURCESOFENERGY,METALLURGY
The key problem: sources of energy
The human engine, Animal power, Wind engines
and water engines, Sails: the European fleets, Wood,
an everyday source of energy,Coal, Concluding remarks.
Iron: a poor relation
The beginnings of metallurgy, Progress between
the eleventh and fifteenth centuries in Styria and
Dauphine, Semi-concentrations, A few figures,
Other metals.
6 THE SPREAD OF TECHNOLOGY:
REVOLUTIQN AND DELAYS
Three great technological innovations
The origins of gunpowder, Artillery becomes mobile,
Artillery on board ship, Arquebuses, muskets, rifles,
Production and costs, Artillery on a world scale, From
paper to the printing press, The invention of moveable
type, Printing and history, The triumph of the
West: ocean navigation, The navies of the Old World,
The water routes of the world, The simple problem of
the Atlantic.
Transport
Fixed itineraries, On not exaggerating the importance
of transport problems, Water transport, Antiquated
means of transport, Europe, Low speeds and capacities,
Carriage and carriers, Transport: a brake on the economy.
Problems of the history of technology
Technology and agriculture, 430 -Technology in itself.
7 MONEY
Imperfect currencies and economies
Primitive currencies, Barter within monetary economies.
Outside Europe: early economies and metallic money
Japan and the Turkish Empire, India, China.
Some rules of the currency game
Competition between metals, Flight, saving and
hoarding, Money of account, Stocks of metal and
the velocity of monetary circulation, Outside the
market economy.
Paper money and instruments of credit
Old practices, Cash and credit, Schumpeter's
diagnosis:everything is money and everything i
s credit, Money and credit: a language.
8 TOWNS AND CITIES
Towns: the problems of definition
Minimum size, combined weight, The everchanging
division of labour, The town and its newcomers:
mainly the poor, The self-consciousness of towns,
Towns, artillery and carriages in the West, Geography
and urban communications, Urban hierarchies,
Towns and civilizations: the case of Islam.
The originality of Western towns
Free worlds, Towns as outposts of modernity,
Urban patterns,Different types of development.
The big cities
The states, The function of capital cities, Unbalanced
worlds, Naples, from the Royal Palace to the Mercato,
St Petersburg in 1790,Penultimate journey: Peking,
London from Elizabeth I to George III, Urbanization,
the sign of modern man.
CONCLUSION
Notes
Index
