ABSTRACT
The mid-century remaking of economics through a heightened mathematization and quantification along with the blending of probability and statistics in econometrics set in high relief questions about the differing scope of measurability in economics and economic history. It is the case that the writings of economic historians and economists highlighting the fraught relation between the two fields can elucidate the place historical proof might hold in economics. In the case of the former, affirmation through or congruence with the facts holds the key; in the case of the latter, logical consistency in structure and derivation is paramount. Eichengreen's work is quite curious, in that he displays a keen sense and awareness of how various and apparently conflicting theories in economics might serve to explain certain major economic developments in Europe over the last several centuries, ranging from the sixteenth-century price revolution in Spain to the onset and persistence of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
