In 17th‐century France, families were essential as both agents and objects in the rise of the market and the process of state formation—phenomena in 17th‐century Europe that, as we now know, were critical to the making of the modern world. This book analyzes the intersections of family, economy, and law to interrogate the long roots of the critical relationship between family and political economy. Primarily through a pioneering exploration of civil litigation in French cities, it demonstrates how early modern spouses, families, communities, and the state sought to manage the political economi ... More

In 17th‐century France, families were essential as both agents and objects in the rise of the market and the process of state formation—phenomena in 17th‐century Europe that, as we now know, were critical to the making of the modern world. This book analyzes the intersections of family, economy, and law to interrogate the long roots of the critical relationship between family and political economy. Primarily through a pioneering exploration of civil litigation in French cities, it demonstrates how early modern spouses, families, communities, and the state sought to manage the political economies that underpinned daily life. These economies included a broad range of tangible and intangible resources—law, borrowing, violence, and marital status among them‐—that needed to be managed, deployed, or mobilized strategically. Household members, neighbours, and authorities invested enormous energy and effort in the daily negotiation of relationships and resources. The ‘business' of family involved resources that were the currency of the early modern world these people knew. The perils as well as promises of the often re‐framed relations between families, neighbourhoods and states have persisted. Then and now, spouses often found that the experience of marriage continued to be fraught with uncertainty and risk. Precarious finances and ubiquitous borrowing were and remain critical challenges. Violence was then—and too often survives as—a marker of inequality in families. Legal process has long been a powerful site of cultural production as well as regulation for subjects/citizens and states.