Progress and Underdevelopment in the Eyes of Renaissance and Baroque Man

Abstract

This study explores how early modern European travellers perceived and interpreted economic disparity, wealth, and poverty during their journeys across Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. The article focuses not on objective economic realities but on how these were filtered through the cultural, intellectual, and ideological lenses of Renaissance and Baroque-era observers.
The main aim is to analyze the concepts of "progress" and "under-development" as understood — implicitly or explicitly — by educated travellers of the time. Rather than drawing from formal economic treatises, Mączak uses a wide array of travel diaries, memoirs, and surveys from figures such as Jakub Sobieski, Fynes Moryson, Peter Heylyn, and various anonymous diarists. These sources provide insight into contemporary mentalities and the subjective frameworks through which social and economic conditions were judged.
The research reveals a diversity of interpretative patterns. Some travellers saw wealth in terms of abundance, fertility, or the presence of relics and religious institutions, while others focused on labor, commerce, or political freedom. Contrasts between countries like Spain and the Netherlands highlighted how environmental and cultural factors were linked — sometimes naively — to prosperity or stagnation. The idea of progress was not yet clearly defined, and observations were often shaped by stereotypes, expectations, and personal biases.
Mączak concludes that early modern travel accounts, despite their lack of statistical rigor, offer valuable material for understanding evolving perceptions of economic development. These texts can enrich cultural and economic historiography when analyzed through interdisciplinary methods, including historical psychology and discourse analysis.