This book is concerned with one of the fundamental problems in the economic and social history of Europe in the early modern period, namely with the bifurcation in its development: in Western Europe, the development of capitalism; in East-Central Europe, the rise of the manorial-serf economy which hampered the development of capitalism. The main motif linking together the studies in this volume is the endeavour to explain this separation. the author evaluates the different theories explaining this, and also provides further analysis of economic life, dealing with the commercial activity, economic regression, especially in Poland.