Karl Persson surveys a broad sweep of economic history, examining one of the most crucial markets--grain--in order to demonstrate more general points. Grain Markets in Europe traces the markets' early regulation, their poor performance and the frequent market failures. Price volatility caused by harvest shocks was of major concern for central and local government because of the unrest it caused. Persson uses insights from development economics, explores contemporary economic thought on the advantages of free trade, and measures the extent of market integration using the latest econometric methods.

1. Bread and enlightenment: the quest for price stability and free trade in 18th-century Europe; 2. Markets, mortality and human capabilities; 3. Harvest fluctuations, storage and grain price responses; 4. Market failures and the regulation of grain markets: a new interpretation; 5. Market integration and the stabilization of grain prices in Europe 1500-1900; 6. Authoritarian liberalism and the decline of grain market regulation in Europe 1760-1860.