Kinship and Capitalism Grassby Hardback Cambridge University Press 9780521782036

Kinship and CapitalismMarriage, Family, and Business in the English-Speaking World, 15801740\nAuthor(s): Richard Grassby\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521782036, 978-0521782036\nSynopsis\nThis uncompromisingly empirical study reconstructs the public and private lives of urban business families during the period of England's emergence as a world economic power. Using a broad cross-section of archival, rather than literary, sources, it tests the orthodox view that the family as an institution was transformed by capitalism and individualism. The approach is both quantitative and qualitative. A database of 28,000 families has been constructed to tackle questions such as demographic structure, kinship and inheritance, which must be answered statistically. Much of the book, however, focuses on issues such as courtship and relations among spouses, parents and children, which can only be studied thr.