Formative Modernities in the Early Modern Atlantic and Beyond Identities, Polities and Glocal Economies

This book offers a new perspective on the concept of modernity. Since its invention as a contrast to Antiquity or the Middle Ages, modernity has been tied to ideas of superiority, progress, and efficiency. As a counterpart to the Marxist “history of class struggle”, “modernization theories” have transformed modernity into an almost teleological concept of historical development. These strong connotations obstruct a clear look at other forms of modernity.

The contributions of the volume will show in a comparative perspective how modernity can also be understood and analyzed as multiple responses of societies and polities to organize themselves in facing ever more complex and integrated interactions at ever larger scales.

Ideas and Identity.- Concepts and Viewpoints in Early Modern Iberian Imperial History and the Globalization of Historiographies.- Watchtowers in the Eighteenth-Century Philippines. Material Representations of Colonial State Power.- Agents of Modernities.- Piracy and Local Alliances in an Empire of Archipelagoes.- The Phoenix and the Eagle. Catalan Political Economy and the Habsburg Monarchy of Charles VI.- “When a Snake is Cut into Pieces:” Austria’s Imperial Relations and the Downfall of Spain’s First Minister Ensenada in 1754.- Monopoly Claims and Moral Economy: Extralegal Practice in British Global and Local Trade c. 1660-1800.- Formation of State Institutions.- Troublemakers in a State-Run Enterprise. Conflict Management and the Limits of Social Disciplining in the Königliches Lagerhaus Berlin, c. 1720–1760.- All Roads Lead to Mexico? The Postal Network of Late Colonial New Spain as an Integrated Communication Space.- A Parable and Ancient Fables: Shaping the Governance of Mining Activities and the Silver Trade in Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century New Spain.- Administration of Mining, Science, and Technology in Europe in the Age of American Silver (1550–1700).- Glocal Economies.- The Peso or the Marsilie – the Standard Currency Unit of the Armenian New Julfa Merchants?.- Foreign Merchants and the Introduction of New Hot Beverages in the Prince-Bishoprics of Münster and Paderborn during the long Eighteenth Century.- Lighter and Brighter: Indian Cottons in Brussels in the First Half of the Eighteenth Century.- Conclusion.- Formative Modernities in the Early Modern Atlantic and Beyond — Critical Remarks on Old Concepts.