Richard H. Tilly

Richard H. Tilly is emeritus professor of economic and social history at the University of Münster. Michael Kopsidis is deputy head of the department agricultural markets at Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).

In From Old Regime to Industrial State, Richard H. Tilly and Michael Kopsidis question established thinking about Germany’s industrialization. While some hold that Germany experienced a sudden breakthrough to industrialization, the authors instead consider a long view, incorporating market demand, agricultural advances, and regional variations in industrial innovativeness, customs, and governance. They begin their assessment earlier than previous studies to show how the 18th-century emergence of international trade and the accumulation of capital by merchants fed commercial expansion and innovation. This book provides the history behind the modern German economic juggernaut.