Discussing economic theory and English economic history from the eighteenth century until the late 1970s this volume discusses among other things fixed capital and problems with the definition of the premodern economy as well as providing a chronology of 18th century business cycles.

Chapter 1 A PROPOSED TAXONOMY OF THOUGHT ABOUT MACROECONOMIC INSTABILITY; Chapter 2 OPTIMISM AND OBLIVION IN THE SEVENTEENTH THROUGH THE NINETEENTH CENTURIES; Chapter 3 TWENTIETH CENTURY THEORIES OF MACROECONOMIC INSTABILITY; Chapter 4 THE BIRTH OF THE BUSINESS CYCLE, PART I; Chapter 5 FROM THE ECONOMICS OF CEREMONIAL ADEQUACY TO THE ECONOMICS OF CUMULATIVE CHANGE; Chapter 6 AN INSTITUTIONALIST THEORY OF THE BUSINESS CYCLE; Chapter 7 THE BIRTH OF THE BUSINESS CYCLE, PART II; Chapter 8 THE RATE OF PROFIT IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; Chapter 9 A CHRONOLOGY OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY BRITISH INSTABILITY;