ABSTRACT
The strength of commoditization pressures and whether countervailing forces exist are determined by the structure of the economy, the way contradictory economic forces are encouraged and/or restrained by the political, social, and legal institutions of a society. This chapter describes some elements of early modern economic and political institutions in four European countries — the Netherlands, England, France, and Spain — in order to examine the emergence of the earliest and most basic institutions that either fostered or inhibited a growth oriented, commoditized economy. It shows that the relationship between the economic and political systems. The legal foundations for a modern, commodity-intensive capitalist economy were laid long before the technological and organizational means existed to take full advantage of them. The development of the highly commoditized economy in the US is a place-specific continuation of the economic development that had been taking place in Europe in the early modern period.
