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Patriarcapitalism? Towards an Intertwined History of Inheritance law and Capitalism from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution (c. 1350–1850)

  • Armel Campagne ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: October 21, 2024

Abstract

This article examines the patriarchal nature of inheritance law in late medieval and early modern England, the existence of an aristocratic offensive in the field of law against women’s inheritance rights between the 14th and the 18th century, and the relation between this offensive and the rise of agrarian capitalism. It then investigates the favorable effects of this legal legacy on the accumulation and concentration of the means of agrarian, coal and industrial commodity production in the hands of a minority of male aristocrats and bourgeois who played a significant role in the making of the Industrial Revolution.


Corresponding author: Armel Campagne, PhD, Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Environmental History, John Henry Newman Building, University College Dublin, Stillorgan Rd, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland, E-mail:

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Received: 2024-02-01
Accepted: 2024-09-26
Published Online: 2024-10-21

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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