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Material progress and the challenge of affluence in seventeenth‐century England
Author(s) -
SLACK PAUL
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.014
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1468-0289
pISSN - 0013-0117
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00456.x
Subject(s) - happiness , politics , standard of living , political economy , political science , history , development economics , environmental ethics , economy , sociology , law , economics , philosophy
In the later seventeenth century, material progress was first identified in England as a recent achievement with boundless future promise, and it was welcomed despite fears about the threats that it was perceived to present to national and personal well‐being. The article investigates the roots of that confidence, and finds them in political economy and other intellectual developments that shaped interpretations of changing standards of living. The civic and moral ‘challenge of affluence’ was fully recognized but never resolved. Progress was accepted, and had to be defended in war‐time, as the route to general happiness, ‘ease’, and plenty.