A clear and readable account of the development of the European economy and its infrastructure from the second century to 1500.Professor Pounds provides a balanced view of the many controversies within the subject, and he has a particular gift for bringing a human dimension to its technicalities.He deals with continental Europe as a whole, including an unusually rich treatment of Eastern Europe.For this welcome new edition -- the first in twenty years -- text and bibliography have been reworked and updated throughout, and the book redesigned and reset.