Moving About and Finding Things Out: Economies and Sciences in the Period of the Scientific Revolution

One of the most common arguments about science is that it leads to economic development; it is also commonly argued that the rise of science was a critical factor in the rise of the modern economy. This article explores that theme from the viewpoint of the history of northwestern Europe in the early modern period, arguing that rather than either “economy” or “science” producing the other, they were coproduced. Institutional forms of organization employed by the urban elite to manage their affairs came to place a high value on descriptive matters of fact, which became the chief matters of exchange in their efforts toward both material betterment and reliable knowledge. In giving pride of place to matters of fact in their knowledge systems, which moved relatively easily across cultural boundaries, it also became possible for urban leaders to imagine a universal form of knowledge, which we often call science.