Ulrich Pfister obtained his PhD from the University of Zürich, Switzerland, in 1984. Since 1996, he is Professor of Social and Economic History at the University of Münster, Germany. His research covers agricultural history, proto-industrialization, demographic history, and historical national accounts.

Nikolaus Wolf obtained his PhD from Humboldt University Berlin in 2003. After positions at the London School of Economics, Free University Berlin, and the University of Warwick, in 2010 he became Professor of Economics and Economic History at Humboldt University. He works on the economic history of Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a focus on economic geography, trade, borders, and identity.

1 Introduction

Ulrich Pfister, Jan-Otmar Hesse, Mark Spoerer, and Nikolaus Wolf

Part I: Nation formation and the evolution of economic policy

2 National identity, economic integration, and the rise of Prussia

Felix Kersting and Nikolaus Wolf

3 Intergovernmental economic cooperation and institutional integration before the founding of the German Empire

Alfred Reckendrees

4 Politics, administration and market governance in a federalist environment: The German Empire in the 1870s and 1880s

Gerold Ambrosius

Part II: The formation of the nation-state as a structural and institutional turning point

5 Germany's transition from a post-Malthusian to a modern growth regime, 1860s to 1880s

Ulrich Pfister

6 Fiscal regime, nation-building, and state capacity: Interactions among public finances, national unification, and economic development

Mark Spoerer

7 Nation-state formation and market integration: Postal service, telegraph system, and railways

Sebastian Till Braun and Jan-Otmar Hesse

8 The changing capacity for self-description: The creation of a national statistical service

Michael C. Schneider

9 The gold standard and the Reichsbank: The transformation of the monetary regime

Matthias Morys

10 Patent law and technical progress

Alexander Donges and Jochen Streb

Part III: Economic development and economic institutions in early Imperial Germany

11 Stock exchanges, banks and the panic of 1873

Carsten Burhop and Felix Selgert

12 How organised was capitalism in the Empire? Lobby associations, cartels and interlocking directorates

Eva-Maria Roelevink and Dieter Ziegler

13 Social insurance and its consequences for workers' living conditions

Tobias A. Jopp and Jochen Streb

14 Inequality and its drivers in Germany, 1840-1914

Thilo N. H. Albers and Charlotte Bartels

15 Education systems and human capital accumulation

Sascha O. Becker, Francesco Cinnirella, and Erik Hornung

Part IV: State and economic development in a European perspective

16 Globalization and foreign trade

Wolf-Fabian Hungerland and Markus Lampe

17 Political change and the origins of protectionism: a French-German comparison (1860s to 1890s)

Jean-Pierre Dormois

18 The economics of the Italian Unification

Giovanni Federico

19 After exit: the Habsburg economy since 1870

Max-Stephan Schulze

20 British relative economic decline in the aftermath of German unification

Nicholas Crafts

Index