World Economic Primacy: 1500-1990Charles Kindleberger's World Economic Primacy: 1500-1990 is a work of rare ambition and scope from one of our most respected economic historians. Extending over broad ranges of both history and geography, the work considers what it is that enables countries to achieve, at some period in their history, economic superiority over other countries, and what it is that makes them decline. Kindleberger begins with the Italian city-states in the fourteenth century, and traces the changing evolution of world economic primacy as it moves to Portugal and Spain, to the Low countries, to Great Britain, and to the United States, addressing the question of alleged U.S. decline. Additional chapters treat France as a perennial challenger, Germany which has twice aggressively sought superiority, and Japan, which may or may not become a candidate for the role of "number one." Kindleberger suggests that the economic vitality of a given country goes through a trajectory that can usefully (thought not precisely) be compared to a human life cycle. Like human beings, the growth of a state can be cut off by accident or catastrophe short of old age; unlike human beings, however, economies can have a second birth. In World Economic Primacy, Kindleberger takes into account the influence of complex historical, social, and cultural factors that determine economic leadership. A brilliant overview of the position of nations in the world economy, World Economic Primacy conveys profound insights into the causes of the rise and decline of the world's economic powers, past and present. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 68
Page xiii
... England , 149 Mosaic Germany , 151 Trade , 152 Gewerbefoerderung ( Industrial Policy ) , 153 The Zollverein , 154 The Constitution of 1848 , 154 The 1850s , 155 The Tariff of Rye and Iron , 156 Attitude toward Britain , 158 The ...
... England , 149 Mosaic Germany , 151 Trade , 152 Gewerbefoerderung ( Industrial Policy ) , 153 The Zollverein , 154 The Constitution of 1848 , 154 The 1850s , 155 The Tariff of Rye and Iron , 156 Attitude toward Britain , 158 The ...
Page 8
... England in 1688 was “ one jump ahead of the Continent " ( ibid . , p . 640 ) . The races described will not be timed with stopwatches . Close dating as to what state was ahead or behind at a particular time is unpersuasive . Historians ...
... England in 1688 was “ one jump ahead of the Continent " ( ibid . , p . 640 ) . The races described will not be timed with stopwatches . Close dating as to what state was ahead or behind at a particular time is unpersuasive . Historians ...
Page 11
... England to export goods and France to export armed men ( 1982 [ 1984 ] , p . 186 ) . Other unintended or unanticipated consequences have been adduced by various analysts . In one view , the price revolution of the sixteenth century ...
... England to export goods and France to export armed men ( 1982 [ 1984 ] , p . 186 ) . Other unintended or unanticipated consequences have been adduced by various analysts . In one view , the price revolution of the sixteenth century ...
Page 12
... England , Scotland , and Wales separately , and even with northwest England ( textiles and the Black Country ) separately from the rich agricultural southeast . For the most part I aggregate , except that the north- ern Italian city ...
... England , Scotland , and Wales separately , and even with northwest England ( textiles and the Black Country ) separately from the rich agricultural southeast . For the most part I aggregate , except that the north- ern Italian city ...
Page 15
... England , from clogs to clogs ) , a theme that Cipolla extends to countries as well as business : one generation to make a fortune , one to hold it , and the third to dissipate it ( 1970 , p . 12 ) .1 Penultimately , before getting down ...
... England , from clogs to clogs ) , a theme that Cipolla extends to countries as well as business : one generation to make a fortune , one to hold it , and the third to dissipate it ( 1970 , p . 12 ) .1 Penultimately , before getting down ...
Contents
3 | |
14 | |
3 Successive Primacies | 37 |
4 The Italian CityStates | 54 |
5 Portugal and Spain | 68 |
6 The Low Countries | 83 |
7 France the Perpetual Challenger | 105 |
8 Britain the Classic Case | 125 |
9 Germany the Latecomer | 149 |
10 The United States | 172 |
11 Japan in the Queue? | 191 |
12 Conclusion | 210 |
Bibliography | 229 |
Index | 257 |
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abroad Adam Smith agriculture American Amsterdam Antwerp Baltic Bank bankers borrowing Braudel Britain British Bruges Cambridge capital chap Charles cities colonies commerce commercial revolution cycle decline developed dollar Dutch earlier early East economic growth Economic History economists edited eighteenth century England English especially Europe European exchange exports Fernand Braudel finance foreign France French Genoa Genoese German gold grandes écoles hegemony historian Holland ibid imports income increase industrial revolution inflation innovation interest investment Italian Italy Japan Japanese keiretsu Kindleberger labor land largely later leadership loans London Marshall Plan Mediterranean ment merchants monetary monopoly move Netherlands nineteenth century nomic Paris percent political population Portugal Portuguese production provinces rise savings seventeenth century Seville ships silver sixteenth century social Spain Spanish success tariff taxes tion trade United University Press Venetian Venice wars workers World War II York Zollverein
Popular passages
Page 128 - To propose that Great Britain should voluntarily give up all authority over her Colonies, and leave them to elect their own magistrates, to enact their own laws, and to make peace and war, as they might think proper, would be to propose such a measure as never was, and never will be adopted by any nation in the world.
Page 33 - Regimes can be defined as sets of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actor expectations converge in a given issue-area.
Page 128 - Britain would not only be immediately freed from the whole annual expense of the peace establishment of the colonies, but might settle with them such a treaty of commerce as would effectually secure to her a free trade, more advantageous to the great body of the people, though less so to the merchants, than the monopoly which she at present enjoys.
Page 9 - Examine the records of history, recollect what has happened within the circle of your own experience, consider with attention what has been the conduct of almost all the greatly unfortunate, either in private or public life, whom you may have either read of, or heard of, or remember ; and you will find that the misfortunes of by far the greater part of them have arisen from their not knowing when they were well, when it was proper for them to sit still and to be contented.
Page 93 - The Prodigious increase of the Netherlander in their Domestick and Foreign Trade, Riches, and multitude of Shipping, is the Envy of the present, and may be the wonder of all future Generations...
Page 130 - If we seek — it would be wrong to do so — for a single reason why the pace of economic development quickened about the middle of the eighteenth century, it is to this we must look. The deep mines, solidly built factories, well-constructed canals, and substantial houses of the industrial revolution were the products of relatively cheap capital.
Page 44 - The prodigious increase of the Netherlands, in their domestic and foreign trade, riches, and multitude of shipping, is the envy of the present, and may be the wonder of future generations...
Page 17 - But if we single out the various nations or the separate branches of industry, the picture becomes less uniform. Some nations seem to have led the world at one time, others at another. Some industries were developing most rapidly at the beginning of the century, others at the end. Within single countries or within single branches of industries (on a world scale) there has not been uniform, unretarded growth.