THIS volume is a continuation of my Economic and Social History of
the Middle Ages ( 1928), which terminated in the second half of the
thirteenth century. The terminal point of this work is not in a date,
but in the economic and social condition of Europe in the early part
of the sixteenth century, when the Reformation began to be caught in
the coils of economic and social forces, and the flood of silver through
Spain from America began to inflate the currency and raise prices in
Europe to unheard-of levels.

Throughout these pages I have endeavored to show the close and
intimate relations of economic, social, and political conditions and
movements. For it is seldom in history that there was one of these
phenomena without the others. It was written of the late George
Unwin that he explained history "by reference, not to the large and
dramatic combinations of statesmen, but to simple, constant and ele-
mentary motives." While I believe that, in the last analysis, all history
is idea, nevertheless ideas are often the mental reflection of economic
and social conditions, and the conduct of men is profoundly influenced
by these conditions.

As in the previous volume, so in this one, I have purposely omitted
consideration of England except when and in so far as England's
relations touched the Continent. For there are many works in English
on England's economic and social history, but none in the mother
tongue upon the economic and social history of Continental Europe in
this period. It is hoped that no reader will think that I believe that
English medieval history is a provincial episode. Economy of space,
not lack of interest, accounts for the omission.

JAMES WESTFALL THOMPSON.

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