This lecture builds on Topic I, Part A in the printed Guide. Please read that material first. The following notes summarize the required lecture material and provide links to relevant Web sites.
Economic history is the study of how real-world economies have changed over time.
Obviously such a study must rely on a record of past events and circumstances. This means finding and studying documents and any other relevant evidence and creating a report of some kind describing some aspect of economic experience in the past. We won't answer either question in this course but you should keep both in mind as we work our way through it. A potential synergy between economic theory and economic history. Theory can help us understand history and history can help to validate or suggest the need to modify or correct theory.