Early Modern Capitalism takes stock of recent research on the development of the economic growth, as well as the development of capital and labour markets during the centuries that preceded the Industrial Revolution. An international collection of contributors discuss such issues as the nature of the Late Medieval Crisis that has typically been portrayed as the birth of European Capitalism, and an examination of the quantitive dimensions of econmomic growth, as well as more specifically the consumption of energy in early modern Europe. Issues such as proto-industry, proletarianization, and labour mobility are also addressed. This book underlines the diversity in the economic experiences of early modern Europeans and suggests how this variety might be the foundation of a new conception of economic and social change, to replace the traditional dichotomies of pre-industrial versus industrial, or pre-modern versus modern/post-modern.