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The Wealth and Poverty of Nations PDF

676 Pages·2008·13.42 MB·English
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T H E W E A L T H —S AND POVERTY OF NATIONS W H Y S O M E A R E S O R I C H A N D S O M E S O P O O R D A V I D S. L A N D E S ISBN 0393-04017-8 USA $30.00 CAN. $39.99 F or the last six hundred years, the world's wealthiest economies have been mostly European. Late in our century, the balance has begun to shift toward Asia, where countries such as Japan have grown at astounding rates. Why have these dom­ inant nations been blessed, and why are so many others still mired in poverty? The answer lies in this important and timely book, where David S. Landes, taking his cue from Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, tells the long, fascinat­ ing story of wealth and power throughout the world: the creation of wealth, the paths of winners and losers, the rise and fall of nations. He studies history as a process, attempting to understand how the world's cul­ tures lead to—or retard—economic and military suc­ cess and material achievement. Countries of the West, Landes asserts, prospered early through the interplay of a vital, open society focused on work and knowledge, which led to increased productivity, the creation of new technolo­ gies, and the pursuit of change. Europe's key advantage lay in invention and know-how, as applied in war, transportation, generation of power, and skill in metal- work. Even such now banal inventions as eyeglasses and the clock were, in their day, powerful levers that tipped the balance of world economic power. Today's new economic winners are following much the same roads to power, while the laggards have somehow failed to duplicate this crucial formula for success. The key to relieving much of the world's poverty lies in understanding the lessons history has to teach us—lessons uniquely imparted in this towering work of history. D A V I D S . L A N D K S is professor emeritus of history and economics at Harvard University and the author of Revolution in Time and Prometheus Unbound. JACKET DESIGN BY PAUL SMITH FRONT JACKET ENGRAVING © CORBIS BETTMANN BACK JACKET PAINTING © NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, D.C. / ART RESOURCE, NEW YORK AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH BY JANE REED, HARVARD NEWS OFFICE "Truly wonderful. N o question that this will establish David Landes as preeminent in his field and in his time." — J o h n Kenneth Galbraith "David Landes has written a masterly survey of the great successes and failures a m o n g the world's historic economies. H e does it with verve, broad vision, and a whole series of sharp opinions that he is not shy about stating plainly. Anyone who thinks that a society's eco­ nomic success is independent of its moral and cultural imperatives obviously has another think coming." — R o b e r t Solow "David Landes's new historical study of the emergence of the current distribution of wealth and poverty among the nations of the world is a picture of enormous sweep and brilliant insight. T h e sense of historical contingency does not detract from the emergence of repeated themes in the encounters which led to European economic leadership. T h e incred­ ible wealth of learning is embodied in a light and vigorous prose which carries the reader along irresistibly." — K e n n e t h Arrow THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONS Also by DAVID S. LANDES BANKERS AND PASHAS T H E UNBOUND PROMETHEUS REVOLUTION IN TIME The Wealth and Poverty of Nations Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor DAVID S. LANDES WWNORTON& COMPANY New York London Copyright © 1998 by David S. Landes All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First Edition For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110. The text of this book is composed in Galliard with the display set in Modern MT Extended Composition and manufacturing by the Haddon Craftsmen, Inc. Book design by lacques Chazaud Cartography by lacques Chazaud Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Landes, David S. The wealth and poverty of nations : why some are so rich and some so poor / by David S. Landes, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 - 3 9 3 - 0 4 0 1 7 - 8 1. Wealth—Europe—History. 2. Poverty—Europe—History. 3. Regional economic disparities—History. 4. Economic history. I. Title. HC240.Z9W45 1998 330.1 6—dc21 97-27508 CIP W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. 10110 http ://www. wwnor ton .com W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 10 Coptic Street, London WC1A 1PU 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 For my children and grandchildren, with love. . . . the causes of the wealth and poverty of nations—the grand object of all enquiries in Political Economy. —Malthus to Ricardo, letter of 26 January 1817* * J. M. Keynes, Collected Works, X, 97-98, quoted in Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes: The Economist as Saviour 1920-1937, p. 419. My thanks for this quotation to Morton Keller. Contents PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi INTRODUCTION xvii 1. Nature's Inequalities 3 2. Answers to Geography: Europe and China 17 3. European Exceptionalism: A Different Path 29 4. The Invention o f Invention 45 5. The Great Opening 60 6. Eastward Ho! 79 7. From Discoveries to Empire 99 8. Bittersweet Isles 113 9. Empire in the East 125 10. For Love of Gain 137 11. Golconda 150 X CONTENTS 12. Winners and Losers: The Balance Sheet of Empire 168 13. The Nature o f Industrial Revolution 186 14. Why Europe? Why Then? 200 15. Britain and the Others 213 16. Pursuit of Albion 231 17. You Need Money to Make Money 256 18. The Wealth o f Knowledge 276 19. Frontiers 292 2 0 . The South American Way 310 2 1 . Celestial Empire: Stasis and Retreat 335 22. Japan: And the Last Shall Be First 350 2 3 . The Meiji Restoration 371 24. History Gone Wrong? 392 2 5 . Empire and After 422 2 6 . Loss o f Leadership 442 27. Winners and . . . 465 2 8 . Losers 491 29. How Did We Get Here? Where Are We Going? 512 NOTES 525 BIBLIOGRAPHY 567 INDEX 637 Preface and Acknowledgments My aim in writing this book is to do world history. Not, however, in the multicultural, anthropological sense of intrinsic parity: all peoples are equal and the historian tries to attend to them all. Rather, I thought to trace and understand the main stream of economic advance and modernization: how have we come to where and what we are, in the sense of making, getting, and spending. That goal allows for more focus and less coverage. Even so, this is a very big task, long in the preparing, and at best represents a first approximation. Such a task would be impossible without the input and advice of others—col­ leagues, friends, students, journalists, witnesses to history, dead and alive. My first debt is to students and colleagues in courses at Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, and other places of shorter stays. In particular, I have learned from working and teaching in Harvard's undergraduate programs in Social Studies and the Core Curriculum. In both of these, teachers come into contact with students and assistants from the full range of con­ centrations and other faculties and have to field challenges from bright, contentious, independent people, unintimidated by differences in age, rank, and experience.

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