Peer Vries Libri

One of the biggest debates in economic history deals with the Great Divergence. How can we explain that at a certain moment in time (the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) a certain part of the world (the West) escaped from general poverty and became much richer than it had ever been before and than the rest of the world? Many prominent scholars discussed this question and came up with many different answers. This book provides a systematic analysis of the most important of those answers by means of an analysis of possible explanations in terms of natural resources, labour, capital, the division of labour and market exchange, accumulation and innovation, and as potential underlying determining factors institutions and culture. The author juxtaposes the views of economists / social scientists and of global historians and systematically compares Great Britain and China to illustrate his position. He qualifies the importance of natural resources, accumulation and the extension of markets, points at the importance of factor prices and changes in consumption and emphasizes the role of innovation, institutions – in particular an active developmental state – and culture.

On the one hand the rich industrialized countries, on the other the poor developing and emerging nations. Beginning in the 18th century Europe experienced enormous economic development surpassing that of the rest of the world. What are the reasons? Chance, exploitation, inherent circumstances in Europe? The disparate relationship between the different parts of the world still exists – and continues to challenge historians to produce plausible explanations. In this volume Peer Vries makes well-founded and masterful arguments concerning the reasons behind these developments and offers his own complex explanation.

Wieso fand die Industrielle Revolution zuerst in England statt und nicht etwa in China, der am höchsten entwickelten asiatischen Großmacht? Der Teehandel zwischen England und China bietet für diese Frage den Ausgangspunkt einer vergleichenden Analyse der politischen Ökonomie der beiden Staaten, die - obwohl die politischen Zielsetzungen der Regierungen in Peking und London sehr unterschiedlich waren - beide an internationalem Austausch interessiert waren und regulierend in den Handel eingriffen. Produzenten und Produktionsverhältnisse im chinesischen Hinterland, die Teeproduktion und -distribution, die große Zahl von kleinen chinesischen Familienbetrieben und Händlern und der systematische Vergleich mit der Situation in England bieten aufschlussreiche und faszinierende Kontraste, an denen sich Stärken und Schwächen der Systeme in einer globalen wirtschaftsgeschichtlichen Perspektive festmachen lassen.