Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 624 pages
- Published by: Princeton University Press November 12, 2007
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 069111854X
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0691118543
-
Book Dimensions:
9.3 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
- Weighs: 2.4 pounds
Reader Reviews
According to Ricardo's theory of trade and comparative advantage, nations reach economic quilibrium through the reciprocity of supply and demand. He was assuming, of course, that all markets were free and all actors rational. This was the ideal rather than the real. Now, economists Ronald Findlay and Kevin O'Rourke advance a modified version of this thesis: trade, or the flow of supply and demand, must be understood within the context political and military equilibrium. It was John Kenneth Gailbraith who said that economics is a political contruct. The authors of this new book attempt to interpret the last 1,000 years of world history where trade flows were determined by "the barrel of a Maxim gun, the edge of a scimitar, or the ferocity of a nomadic horseman." Many historians and economists have written world economic histories, but they have focused on only particular regions. For example, Eric Jones in The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia saw history from a European perspective and, on the other side, Kenneth Pomeranz's The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. was told from a more sinocentric point of view. The authors of this work give a more balanced account, treating all the regions equally. The authors believe that politics determines economics more than the other way around focus their attention first and foremost on global conflict and geopolitics. The authors argue that there were three great world historical events that shaped the Second Millenium. The first being Pax Mongolica established by Genghis Khan and the nomads of Central Asia. This established by force the first common market stretching from Western Europe to the Sea of Japan. It resulted in a huge increase in population as well as an increase in economic output. It also brought with it microbes which caused the Black Death in Europe. The second transformational event was the discovery of the New World along with further exploration of Africa and Asia. This was in many ways a consequence of the first event. The period from 1500 to 1650 was known as the Age of Mercantilism. The authors focus on political and military strategies adopted by Asians to counter European colonial and mercantile policies. The third transformational event was the Industrial Revolution. Its importance to the last two centuries almost cannot be overemphasized. The technological world we live in today got its start in Northern England two hundred years ago. It marked the beginnig of the "great divergence" in wealth among nations. It had a direct influence on the Napoleonic Wars and World Wars I and II. It also lead to Pax Britannica and, after World War II, Pax Americana. The authors describe the successive eras of world trade as they were determined by imperialism and global conflict. In each new era a different set of geopolitical relations is established, each time altering the currents of trade. The authors hope that some lessons can be learned from the violence and injustice of past conflicts as newly emerging powers such as China and India take the world stage today. There are presently centrifugal and centripetal forces at work: centripetal being the ever-integrating force of technological progress and centrifugal being anti-globalization backlash. This book can provide valuable information regarding these two forces.
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