To be sure, improved agricultural techniques and the expansion of trade beyond the largely self-sufficient feudal manor increased the division of labor and raised living standards and populations, but growth in both was glacial. In the fifteenth century, the great mass of people were engaged in the same productive practices as those of their forebears many generations earlier.
In that regard, the causes and consequences of market turmoil are still insufficiently understood for the end of history to be declared. And as I briefly discuss the phases often accompanying financial market turmoil – retrenchment, reliquification, revaluation, review and refinement – you will recognize that these phases are neither discrete nor complete as year-end approaches.