Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-225) and index.
Contents:
Part I The big picture. Determinants of market integration ; Gauging the level of market integration -- part II Differentiations and extensions. Geography and the story of the many Europes ; Markets versus climate in Europe and India -- part III Synthesis and interpretation. Economic integration in India and Europe.
Summary:
Contrary to popular narratives, 'The Great Divergence Reconsidered' shows that Europe's rise to its current status as an undisputed world economic leader was not the effect of the Industrial Revolution, nor can it be explained by coal or colonial exploitation. Using a wealth of new historical evidence, Roman Studer shows that the Great Divergence occurred in the seventeenth century, if not earlier. When compared to India and other parts of the Asiatic world, early modern Europe was characterized by a more powerful transportation system, bigger trade flows, larger and better integrated markets, higher productivity levels, and superior living standards, even before the Industrial Revolution brought about far-reaching structural changes and made Europe's supremacy even more pronounced. Thus, an interplay of various factors best explains Europe's early and gradual rise, including better institutions, favorable geographical features, increasing political stability, and increasingly rapid advances in science and technology. Studer shows that institutional, geographical, political, and technological factors account for Europe's rise to undisputed world economic leader.
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