Steve Davies is Senior Lecturer at the Department of History and Economic History, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester UK. His published works include The Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought (with Nigel Ashford) and Empiricism and History, published by Palgrave Macmillan. His essays have appeared in a number of books including The Market and the State, The Voluntary City. His current research is on the origin of modernity and contrasting accounts of the development of the world economy since the Middle Ages.