Les enjeux économiques du secret dans l’Angleterre de la Renaissance

Renaissance views on trade secrets, while illustrating shifts in mental attitudes, are also to be analysed from the perspective of economic history. In the Middle Ages technical knowledge had been restricted to guilds and the influence which these organizations retained well into the early modem period has been seen as an obstacle to economic progress. This paper suggests a slightly different interpretation. It shows that guild privileges were being eroded and that the legitimacy of secrecy as a means of restricting access to knowledge was often questioned in Renaissance England. Meanwhile technical knowledge also became endowed with market value, which the Crown materialized by granting patents and monopolies to entrepreneurs. This, in turn, paved the way for a process of capital accumulation which was critical in easing the transition to later stages of economic development