Promoting an understanding of social and economic change in Germany from the Middle Ages to the present, this is the first volume in a set of three. It examines the roots of later developments, as far back as 1300, exploring basic economic frameworks in population and agrarian development, looking at the development of towns and town-country relations, changes in social structure and changes in patterns of consumption and daily life. Characteristic features of the 16th century were early capitalism, changes in the gendered nature of work, the social and economic role of institutions, the importance of communalism, and religious change which led to modern confessionalism. This text summarizes recent research, and provides fresh thematic approaches to Germany history based on the contributions of specialists in the field. It also makes accessible in English, in some cases for the first time, the work of leading German historians.