About

Why this blog?

Have you ever realized the amazing amount of labour wasted every day in colleges and universities around the world? Tons of papers, exams, reading notes, etc. are written every year only to be forgotten in a computer file, land in the bin or being thrown into a fire to cook some sausages once summer comes. If every generation of students could build on their predecessors’ work they’d go further and faster and they’d create something lasting beyond the last exam.

I for one read tens of papers every month, this blog is thus mostly designed to pass on the knowledge I managed to gather from these readings. This sort of open source, qualitative, internet-based source (hack-ademia if you wish) is destined to overcome the five obstacles preventing one from accessing information: distance, time, money, language and the lack of direction.

Who am I?

Ben

I’m a Parisian born and bred, I’ve studied at the Sorbonne in my hometown and at the LSE in London.

I came to economic history by chance: one of my professor thought the word “entrepreneur” would sound cool in the title of my dissertation. I’m particularly interested in early modern European economic history, and by the issue of the slow rise of the market on the continent. For me, the escape from the Malthusian trap is and remains the most fascinating event that has taken place in the last 5,000 years.

I’ve just started a PhD at Utrecht University under the supervision of Pr Clemens Kool, Pr Joost Jonker and Pr Oscar Gelderblom about intitutional investors in the Netherlands and Belgium from 1500 to 1800.

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This blog is dedicated to the memory of Larry Epstein.