No abstract

This article examines energy consumption in Sweden, Holland, Italy and Spain over 200 years, including both traditional and modern energy carriers. The analysis is based on totally new series of energy consumption including traditional carriers along with modern sources. Our main purposes are a closer examination of the process of the energy transition in Europe and a revision of the prevailing idea of there being, over the long run, an inverted U-curve in energy intensity. Changes in energy consumption are decomposed into effects from population growth, economic growth and energy intensity. The results on energy intensity challenge the previous suggestions of most scholars. An inverted U-curve does not exist whenever we include traditional sources of energy in our analysis.

This article provides an overview of Italian urbanisation between  and , which may help in distinguishing the main phases of Italian economic history. In this millennium, three epochs can be singled out: from the tenth century to -; from - to -; and from - to . While the first phase is characterised by slow progress and the third by massive urbanisation, the intermediate phase saw declining urbanisation. A strong connection exists, in these periods, between urbanisation and the productivity of the Italian economic system. By looking at Italian economic history from the perspective of urbanisation, we can draw a different picture from the one prevailing in recent literature on the subject.  de Vries (), Bairoch () and Bairoch et al. ().  See data on the occupational structure in eighteenth century Puglia in Salvemini ().

This article estimates agricultural production and output per worker in Italy, from about the year 1000 to the present. The millennium may be divided neatly into three periods. Output per worker increased until the fourteenth century, declined, with some fluctuations, until the end of the nineteenth century, and then recovered, booming in the past 50 years.