The great divergence : China, Europe, and the making of the modern world economy / Kenneth Pomeranz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pomeranz, Kenneth.

Series:

Princeton economic history of the Western world.

The Princeton economic history of the Western world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Economic development--History.

Economic development.

Comparative economics.

Europe--Economic conditions--18th century.

Europe.

Europe--Economic conditions--19th century.

China--Economic conditions--1644-1912.

China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 382 p.)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Great Divergence brings new insight to one of the classic questions of history: Why did sustained industrial growth begin in Northwest Europe, despite surprising similarities between advanced areas of Europe and East Asia? As Ken Pomeranz shows, as recently as 1750, parallels between these two parts of the world were very high in life expectancy, consumption, product and factor markets, and the strategies of households. Perhaps most surprisingly, Pomeranz demonstrates that the Chinese and Japanese cores were no worse off ecologically than Western Europe. Core areas throughout the eighteenth-century Old World faced comparable local shortages of land-intensive products, shortages that were only partly resolved by trade. Pomeranz argues that Europe's nineteenth-century divergence from the Old World owes much to the fortunate location of coal, which substituted for timber. This made Europe's failure to use its land intensively much less of a problem, while allowing growth in energy-intensive industries. Another crucial difference that he notes has to do with trade. Fortuitous global conjunctures made the Americas a greater source of needed primary products for Europe than any Asian periphery. This allowed Northwest Europe to grow dramatically in population, specialize further in manufactures, and remove labor from the land, using increased imports rather than maximizing yields. Together, coal and the New World allowed Europe to grow along resource-intensive, labor-saving paths. Meanwhile, Asia hit a cul-de-sac. Although the East Asian hinterlands boomed after 1750, both in population and in manufacturing, this growth prevented these peripheral regions from exporting vital resources to the cloth-producing Yangzi Delta. As a result, growth in the core of East Asia's economy essentially stopped, and what growth did exist was forced along labor-intensive, resource-saving paths--paths Europe could have been forced down, too, had it not been for favorable resource stocks from underground and overseas.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION. COMPARISONS, CONNECTIONS, AND NARRATIVES OF EUROPEAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

PART ONE: A WORLD OF SURPRISING RESEMBLANCES

ONE. EUROPE BEFORE ASIA? POPULATION, CAPITAL ACCUMULATION, AND TECHNOLOGY IN EXPLANATIONS OF EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT

TWO. MARKET ECONOMIES IN EUROPE AND ASIA

PART TWO: FROM NEW ETHOS TO NEW ECONOMY? CONSUMPTION, INVESTMENT, AND CAPITALISM

INTRODUCTION

THREE. LUXURY CONSUMPTION AND THE RISE OF CAPITALISM

FOUR. VISIBLE HANDS: FIRM STRUCTURE, SOCIOPOLITICAL STRUCTURE, AND "CAPITALISM" IN EUROPE AND ASIA

PART THREE: BEYOND SMITH AND MALTHUS: FROM ECOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS TO SUSTAINED INDUSTRIAL GROWTH

FIVE. SHARED CONSTRAINTS: ECOLOGICAL STRAIN IN WESTERN EUROPE AND EAST ASIA

SIX. ABOLISHING THE LAND CONSTRAINT: THE AMERICAS AS A NEW KIND OF PERIPHERY

A. COMPARATIVE ESTIMATES OF LAND TRANSPORT CAPACITY PER PERSON: GERMANY AND NORTH INDIA CIRCA 1800

B. ESTIMATES OF MANURE APPLIED TO NORTH CHINA AND EUROPEAN FARMS IN THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, AND A COMPARISON OF RESULTING NITROGEN FLUXES

C. FOREST COVER AND FUEL-SUPPLY ESTIMATES FOR FRANCE, LINGNAN, AND A PORTION OF NORTH CHINA, 1700-1850

D. ESTIMATES OF "GHOST ACREAGE" PROVIDED BY VARIOUS IMPORTS TO LATE EIGHTEENTH- AND EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN

E. ESTIMATES OF EARNING POWER OF RURAL TEXTILE WORKERS IN THE LOWER YANGZI REGION OF CHINA, 1750-1840

F. ESTIMATES OF COTTON AND SILK PRODUCTION, LOWER YANGZI AND CHINA AS AWHOLE, 1750 AND LATER-WITH COMPARISONS TO UNITED KINGDOM, FRANCE, AND GERMANY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [339]-371) and index.

ISBN:

9786612753954

9781400823499

1400823498

9781282753952

1282753959

9781400813025

1400813026

OCLC:

700688672