Erik Aerts was professor of economic history at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). He taught courses on economic development during the Middle Ages and the early modern period as well as several methodological courses such as historical statistics. His research interests are wide and include not only monetary and fi nancial history, brewing and consumption of alcoholic beverages, but occasionally also medicine, religion, witchcraft and human-feline relations. This Festschrift in honour of his retirement deals with government intervention in the economy, a recurring topic in his oeuvre.
The outlook on the effects of state formation and government intervention in the economy is diverse. In his research on the intervention of the central government in the economy of the Habsburg Low Countries (1555-1795), Erik Aerts presented a novel approach to state intervention as a collaboration between governments at different levels, administrators and entrepreneurs.
This book brings together sixteen chapters written by twenty distinguished scholars on diverse aspects and forms of state formation and government intervention. Individual chapters deal with institutions and public authorities, regulation and subsidizing, the involvement of entrepreneurs, offi cials and various levels of the government in the process of shaping economic intervention, and with the relationship between offi cial religious (in)tolerance and economic performance.
The outlook on the effects of state formation and government intervention in the economy is diverse. In his research on the intervention of the central government in the economy of the Habsburg Low Countries (1555-1795), Erik Aerts presented a novel approach to state intervention as a collaboration between governments at different levels, administrators and entrepreneurs.
This book brings together sixteen chapters written by twenty distinguished scholars on diverse aspects and forms of state formation and government intervention. Individual chapters deal with institutions and public authorities, regulation and subsidizing, the involvement of entrepreneurs, offi cials and various levels of the government in the process of shaping economic intervention, and with the relationship between offi cial religious (in)tolerance and economic performance.
