The Great Divergence : : China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy / / Kenneth Pomeranz.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2021 English
• VerfasserIn: Pomeranz, Kenneth,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Princeton Classics ; 118
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (404 p.) :; 1 b/w illus. 9 tables.

A landmark comparative history of Europe and China that examines why the Industrial Revolution emerged in the WestThe Great Divergence sheds light on one of the great questions of history: Why did sustained industrial growth begin in Northwest Europe? Historian Kenneth Pomeranz shows that as recently as 1750, life expectancy, consumption, and product and factor markets were comparable in Europe and East Asia. Moreover, key regions in China and Japan were no worse off ecologically than those in Western Europe, with each region facing corresponding shortages of land-intensive products. Pomeranz’s comparative lens reveals the two critical factors resulting in Europe's nineteenth-century divergence—the fortunate location of coal and access to trade with the New World. As East Asia’s economy stagnated, Europe narrowly escaped the same fate largely due to favorable resource stocks from underground and overseas. This Princeton Classics edition includes a preface from the author and makes a powerful historical work available to new readers.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Comparisons, Connections, and Narratives of European Economic Development -- Variations on the Europe-Centered Story: Demography, Ecology, and Accumulation -- Other Europe-Centered Stories: Markets, Firms, and Institutions -- Problems with the Europe-Centered Stories -- Building a More Inclusive Story -- Comparisons, Connections, and the Structure of the Argument -- A Note on Geographic Coverage -- 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 constrains 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 -- Appendixes -- 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 a Whole, 1750 and Later—With Comparisons to United Kingdom, France, and Germany -- Bibliography -- Index