An Economic History of Famine Resilience [Hardcover]

Food crises have always tested societies. This volume discusses societal resilience to food crises, examining the responses and strategies at the societal level that effectively helped individuals and groups to cope with drops in food supply, in various parts of the world over the past two millennia.

Societal responses can be coordinated by the state, the market, or civil society. Here it is shown that it was often a combined effort, but that there were significant variations between regions and periods. The long-term, comparative perspective of the volume brings out these variations, explains them, and discusses their effects on societal resilience.

This book will be of interest to advanced students and researchers across economic history, institutional economics, social history and development studies.

Contents 1. Resilience to famine ca. 600 BC-present: an introduction Jessica Dijkman and Bas van Leeuwen 1. Central issue 2. Theories and concepts 3. Famine resilience in historical research 4. Some general patterns Part I  Premodern world 2. Responses to food shortages in core regions of antiquity compared Bas van Leeuwen and Jieli Li 1. Introduction 2. The nature of famines in core regions 3. Societal resilience 4. Concluding comparison 3. Political, social and economic determinants of responses to food crises in the early Roman empire Luuk de Ligt 1. Introduction 2. Famines and food shortages in the Roman world 3. The food supply of the city of Rome 4. Intervention by provincial governors 5. The role of free trade in resolving urban food crises 6. Public institutions and private benefactors 7. Benefactors, public grain-buyers and the grain market 8. Conclusions 4. Feeding the hungry: Poor relief and famine in northwestern Europe, 1500-1700 Jessica Dijkman 1. Introduction 2. Southeastern England 3. The northwestern Low Countriesl£E