Rice cultivated dry and in paddy fields, The
miracle of the paddy fields, The importance of nee.
Well-ascertained origins, Maize and American
The dietary revolutions of the eighteenth century
Maize outside America, Potatoes: a great future,
Eating other people's bread.
The rest of the world
The people of the hoe, The primitive peoples.
3 SUPERFLUITY AND SUFFICIENCY
FOOD AND DRINK
Eating habits: luxury and the foods of the masses
A belated luxury, Carnivorous Europe, The decline
in meat consumption after 1550, Europe's privileged
position, The extravagances of the table, Laying the
table, The slow adoption of good manners, At the table
of Christ, Everyday foods: salt, Everyday foods: dairy
products, fats, eggs, Everyday seafoods, Cod fishing,
The decline in the vogue for pepper after 1650,
Sugar conquers the world.
Drinks, stimulants and drugs
Water, Wine, Beer, Cider, The belated popularity of
alcohol in Europe, Alcoholism outside Europe,
Chocolate, tea, coffee, Stimulants: the glories
4 SUPERFLUITY AND SUFFICIENCY:
HOUSES, CLOTHES AND FASHION
Houses throughout the world
Rich building materials: stone and brick, Less favoured
building materials: wood, earth, fabric, Rural dwellings
in Europe, Urban houses and dwellings,The urbanized
The lack of possessions of the poor, Traditional
civilizations and unchanging interiors, The double
pattern of Chinese furniture, In Black Africa, The
West and its many different types of furniture,
Floors, walls, ceilings, doors and windows, Chimneys
and fireplaces, Furnaces and stoves, Furniture makers
and the vanities of buyers, The domestic interior seen
whole, Luxury and comfort.
Costume and fashion
When society stood still, If all the world were poor ... ,
Europe and the craze for fashion, Is fashion frivolous?,
The geography of textiles, Fashion in the broad sense:
long-term change, Conclusions?
5 THE SPREAD OF TECHNOLOGY:
The key problem: sources of energy
The human engine, Animal power, Wind engines
and water engines, Sails: the European fleets, Wood,
an everyday source of energy,Coal, Concluding remarks.
Iron: a poor relation
The beginnings of metallurgy, Progress between
the eleventh and fifteenth centuries in Styria and
Dauphine, Semi-concentrations, A few figures,
6 THE SPREAD OF TECHNOLOGY:
REVOLUTIQN AND DELAYS
Three great technological innovations
The origins of gunpowder, Artillery becomes mobile,
Artillery on board ship, Arquebuses, muskets, rifles,
Production and costs, Artillery on a world scale, From
paper to the printing press, The invention of moveable
type, Printing and history, The triumph of the
West: ocean navigation, The navies of the Old World,
The water routes of the world, The simple problem of
Fixed itineraries, On not exaggerating the importance
of transport problems, Water transport, Antiquated
means of transport, Europe, Low speeds and capacities,
Carriage and carriers, Transport: a brake on the economy.
Problems of the history of technology
Technology and agriculture, 430 -Technology in itself.
Imperfect currencies and economies
Primitive currencies, Barter within monetary economies.
Outside Europe: early economies and metallic money
Japan and the Turkish Empire, India, China.
Some rules of the currency game
Competition between metals, Flight, saving and
hoarding, Money of account, Stocks of metal and
the velocity of monetary circulation, Outside the
Paper money and instruments of credit
Old practices, Cash and credit, Schumpeter's
diagnosis:everything is money and everything i
s credit, Money and credit: a language.
8 TOWNS AND CITIES
Towns: the problems of definition
Minimum size, combined weight, The everchanging
division of labour, The town and its newcomers:
mainly the poor, The self-consciousness of towns,
Towns, artillery and carriages in the West, Geography
and urban communications, Urban hierarchies,
Towns and civilizations: the case of Islam.
The originality of Western towns
Free worlds, Towns as outposts of modernity,
Urban patterns,Different types of development.
The big cities
The states, The function of capital cities, Unbalanced
worlds, Naples, from the Royal Palace to the Mercato,
St Petersburg in 1790,Penultimate journey: Peking,
London from Elizabeth I to George III, Urbanization,
the sign of modern man.