Great Divergence
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"Great Divergence" is a term coined by Samuel Huntington[3] (also known as the European miracle, a term coined by Eric Jones in 1981)[4] referring to the process by which the Western world (i.e. Western Europe and the parts of the New World where its people became the dominant populations) overcame pre-modern growth constraints and emerged during the 19th century as the most powerful and wealthy world civilization of all time, eclipsing Mughal India, Qing China, Tokugawa Japan, Joseon Korea and Ottoman Turkey.
The beginning of the Great divergence can be traced back to the commercial revolution and the origins of mercantilism and capitalism during the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The process was accompanied and reinforced by the subsequent rise of the European colonial empires, the Proto-globalization, the Scientific Revolution, the Age of Enlightenment and finally the Industrial Revolution. Scholars have proposed a wide variety of theories to explain why the Great Divergence happened, including geography, colonialism, resources, and customary traditions.
Before the Great Divergence, the core developed areas included Western Europe, East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East. In each of these core areas, differing political and cultural institutions allowed varying degrees of development. Western Europe, China, Korea and Japan had developed to a relatively high level and began to face constraints on energy and land use, while India still possessed large amounts of unused resources.
Technological advances, such as railroads, steamboats, mining, and agriculture were embraced to a higher degree in the West than the East during the Great Divergence. Technology led to increased industrialization and economic complexity in the areas of agriculture, trade, fuel and resources, further separating the East and the West. Western Europe's use of coal as an energy substitute for wood in the mid-19th century gave it a major head start in modern energy production.
Although China had used coal earlier during the Song Dynasty, its use declined due to the shift of Chinese industry to the south, far from major deposits, during the destruction of Mongol and Jurchen invasions between 1100 and 1400. The Western powers also had the advantage of larger quantities of raw materials and substantial captive trading markets, particularly in their colonies. China and the rest of Asia participated in trading, but colonization of Africa and the Americas brought a distinct advantage to the West.[5] "In the twentieth century, the Great Divergence peaked before the First World War and continued until the early 1970s, then, after two decades of indeterminate fluctuations, in the late 1980s it was replaced by the Great Convergence as the majority of Third World countries reached economic growth rates significantly higher than those in most First World countries".[6]
Terminology and definition
The term "Great Divergence" was coined by Samuel P. Huntington[3] in 1996 and used by Kenneth Pomeranz in his book The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (2000). The same phenomenon was discussed by Eric Jones, whose 1981 book The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia popularized the alternate term "European Miracle".[4] Broadly, both terms signify a socioeconomic shift in which European countries advanced ahead of others during the modern period.[3]
The timing of the Great Divergence is in dispute among historians. The traditional dating is as early as the 16th century, with scholars arguing that Europe had been on a trajectory of higher growth since that date.[7] Pomeranz and others argue that the period of most rapid divergence was during the 19th century. Citing nutrition data and chronic European trade deficits as evidence, these scholars claim that before that date Asia, especially China in the Yangzi Delta as well as India in the Bengal and Southern regions, was wealthier and more advanced.[8][9][10][11][12] Others, while accepting parity of incomes between the most prosperous parts of China, India and Europe in the late 18th century, trace the first significant changes in European economies back to the 17th century.[13][11] Others argue that the cultural factors behind the divergence can be traced to earlier periods and institutions such as the Renaissance and the Chinese imperial examination system.[14][15]
Conditions in pre-Great Divergence cores
Unlike modern industrial economies, pre-modern economies were constrained by conditions which greatly limited economic growth. Although core regions in Eurasia had achieved a relatively high standard of living by the 18th century, shortages of land, soil degradation, deforestation, lack of dependable energy sources, and other ecological constraints limited growth in per capita incomes.[16] Rapid rates of depreciation on capital meant that a great part of savings in pre-modern economies were spent on replacing depleted capital, hampering capital accumulation.[17] Massive windfalls of fuel, land, food and other resources were necessary for continued growth and capital accumulation, leading to colonialism.[18] The Industrial Revolution overcame these restraints, allowing rapid, sustained growth in per capita incomes for the first time in human history.
Western Europe
After the Viking, Muslim and Magyar invasions waned in the 10th century, Europe entered a period of prosperity, population growth and territorial expansion known as the High Middle Ages. Trade and commerce revived, with increased specialization between areas and between the countryside and artisans in towns. By the 13th century the best land had been occupied and agricultural income began to fall, though trade and commerce continued to expand, especially in Venice and other northern Italian cities. The 14th century brought a series of calamities: famines, wars, the Black Death and other epidemics. The resulting drop in the population led to falling rents and rising wages, undermining the feudal and manorial relationships that had characterized Medieval Europe.[19]
According to a 2014 study, "there was a ‘little divergence’ within Europe between 1300 and 1800: real wages in the North Sea area more or less stabilized at the level attained after the Black Death, and remained relatively high (above subsistence) throughout the early modern period (and into the nineteenth century); whereas, on the other hand, real wages in the ‘periphery’ (in Germany, Italy, and Spain) began to fall after the fifteenth century and returned to some kind of subsistence minimum during the 1500–1800 period. This ‘little divergence’ in real wages mirrors a similar divergence in GDP per capita: in the ‘periphery’ of Europe there was almost no per capita growth (or even a decline) between 1500 and 1800, whereas in Holland and England real income continued to rise and more or less doubled in this period."[20]
In the Age of Exploration navigators discovered new routes to the Americas and Asia. Commerce expanded, together with innovations such as joint stock companies and various financial institutions. New military technologies favored larger units, leading to a concentration of power in states whose finances relied on trade. France and Spain developed absolute monarchies reliant on high taxes and state-backed monopolies, leading to economic decline. The Dutch Republic was controlled by merchants, while Parliament gained control of England after a long struggle culminating in the Glorious Revolution. These arrangements proved more hospitable to economic development.[21] At the end of the 16th century London and Antwerp began pulling away from other European cities, as illustrated in the following graph of real wages in several European cities:[22]
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The West had a series of unique advantages compared to Asia, such as the proximity of coal mines; the discovery of the New World, which alleviated ecological restraints on economic growth (land shortages etc.); and the profits from colonization.[23]
China
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China had a larger population than Europe throughout the Common Era.[24] Unlike Europe, it was politically united for long periods during that time.
During the Song Dynasty (960–1279), the country experienced a revolution in agriculture, water transport, finance, urbanization, science and technology, which made the Chinese economy the most advanced in the world from about 1100.[25][26] Mastery of wet-field rice cultivation opened up the hitherto underdeveloped south of the country, while later northern China was devastated by Jur'chen and Mongol invasions, floods and epidemics. The result was a dramatic shift in the centre of population and industry from the home of Chinese civilization around the Yellow River to the south of the country, a trend only partially reversed by the re-population of the north from the 15th century.[27] By 1300, China had fallen behind Italy in living standards.[26][28]
In the late imperial period (1368–1911), comprising the Ming and Qing dynasties, taxation was low, and the economy and population grew significantly, though without substantial increases in productivity.[29] Chinese goods such as silk, tea and ceramics were in great demand in Europe, leading to an inflow of silver, expanding the money supply and facilitating the growth of competitive and stable markets.[30] By the end of the 18th century, population density levels exceeded those in Europe.[31] China had more large cities but far fewer small ones than in contemporary Europe.[32] Research suggests that the Great Divergence between China and Europe had begun by 1750, before the Industrial Revolution.[26][28][33]
India
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By the 1500s, India benefited from extensive external and internal trade. Its agriculture was highly efficient as well as its industry. For economic historian Irfan Habib, however, this was not sufficient to later lead to an important capitalistic development.[35] Unlike China, Japan and western and central Europe, India did not experience extensive deforestation until the 19th and 20th centuries. It thus had no pressure to move to coal as a source of energy.[36] From the 17th century, cotton textiles from Mughal India became popular in Europe, with some governments banning them to protect their wool industries.[37] In the 18th century, India were the most important manufacturers in world trade,[38] producing about 25% of the world's industrial output in 1750,[39] with Mughal Bengal in particular being globally dominant in industries such as textile manufacturing and shipbuilding.[40][41][42] Real wages and living standards in 18th century Bengal and South India were also comparable to Britain, which in turn had the highest living standards in Europe.[10][39]
In early modern Europe, there was significant demand for products from Mughal India, particularly cotton textiles, as well as goods such as spices, peppers, indigo, silks, and saltpeter (for use in munitions).[43] European fashion, for example, became increasingly dependent on Mughal Indian textiles and silks. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Mughal India accounted for 95% of British imports from Asia, and the Bengal Subah province alone accounted for 40% of Dutch imports from Asia.[44] In contrast, there was very little demand for European goods in Mughal India, which was largely self-sufficient, thus Europeans had very little to offer, except for some woolens, unprocessed metals and a few luxury items. The trade imbalance caused Europeans to export large quantities of gold and silver to Mughal India in order to pay for South Asian imports.[43]
India remained the world's leading cotton textile manufacturer up until the 19th century, with Bengal being the center of cotton production. In order to compete with India, Britain invested in labour-saving technical progress for textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, while implementing protectionist policies such as bans and tariffs to restrict Indian imports. At the same time, the British East India Company's rule in India contributed to its deindustrialization, with the decline of native industry opening up a new market for British goods.[45] British colonization forced open the large Indian market to British goods while restricting Indian imports to Britain, and raw cotton was imported from India without taxes or tariffs to British factories which manufactured textiles from Indian cotton and sold them back to the Indian market.[46] In addition, the capital amassed from Bengal following its conquest after the Battle of Plassey in 1757 was used to invest in British industries such as textile manufacturing and greatly increase British wealth.[40][41][42] The colonization of Bengal thus contributed to Britain's Industrial Revolution.[40][41][42][47] Britain eventually surpassed India as the world's leading cotton textile manufacturer in the 19th century.[45]
Japan
Japanese society was governed by the Tokugawa Shogunate, which divided Japanese society into a strict hierarchy and intervened considerably in the economy through state monopolies[48] and restrictions on foreign trade; however, in practice, the Shogunate's rule was often circumvented.[49] From 725-1974, Japan experienced GDP per capita growth at an annual rate of 0.04%, with major periods of positive per capita GDP growth occurring during 1150-1280, 1450-1600 and after 1730.[50] There were no significant periods of sustained growth reversals.[50] Relative to the United Kingdom, GDP per capita was at roughly similar levels until the middle of the 17th century.[50] By 1850, per capita incomes in Japan were approximately a quarter of the British level.[50]
Korea
In its earlier days, Korea had healthy international trading relationships, receiving merchants from as far as the Middle East. [51] Because of its strategic value to its neighboring countries, however, Korea had been invaded several times during its Goryeo and Joseon eras, starting with the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. Though repelled due to its strong navy and aid from China, the Japanese invasions in the late 16th century were particularly devastating to the peninsula and it never truly recovered until the modern era.[52] Due to relatively frequent invasions, increased Western colonization of Asia, and the arrival of Christian missionaries, Korea began a long period of isolationism, maintaining diplomatic relationships primarily with China only.[53] For the rest of the Joseon period, the country was marred by economic hardships, peasant revolts, and political factionalism until it was annexed by Japan in the early 20th century.[54]
Middle East
The Middle East was more advanced than Western Europe in 1000 CE, was on par by the middle of the 16th century, but by 1750, the leading Middle Eastern states lagged behind Britain and the Netherlands.[55][56]
Possible factors
Beginning in the early 19th century, economic prosperity rose greatly in the West due to improvements in technological efficiency,[57] as evidenced by the advent of new conveniences including the railroad, steamboat, steam engine, and the use of coal as a fuel source. These innovations caused the Great Divergence, elevating Europe and the United States to high economic standing relative to the East.[57] Scholars have proposed numerous theories to explain why the Great Divergence occurred.
Coal
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In the Industrial Revolution, coal and coke were extensively used in metallurgy and steam engines, being cheaper, more plentiful and more efficient than wood and charcoal. Coal-fired steam engines were also used in the railways and in shipping, revolutionizing transport in the early 19th century.
Kenneth Pomeranz drew attention to differences in the availability of coal between West and East. Due to regional climate, European coal mines were wetter, and deep mines did not become practical until the introduction of the Newcomen steam engine to pump out groundwater. In Chinese mines in the arid northwest, ventilation to prevent explosions was much more difficult.[58]
Another difference was geographic distance; although China and Europe had comparable mining technologies, the distances between the economically developed regions and coal deposits were vastly different. The largest coal deposits in China are located in the northwest, within reach of the Chinese industrial core during the Northern Song. During the 11th century, China developed sophisticated technologies to extract and use coal for energy, leading to soaring iron production.[9] The southward population shift between the 12th and 14th centuries resulted in new centers of Chinese industry far from the major coal deposits. Some small coal deposits were available locally, though their use was sometimes hampered by government regulations. In contrast, Britain contained some of the largest coal deposits in Europe.[59]
Efficiency of markets and state intervention
Europe having had more free and efficient markets than other civilizations has been cited as a reason for the Great Divergence.[60] In Europe, market efficiency was disrupted by the prevalence of feudalism and mercantilism. Practices such as entail, which restricted land ownership, hampered the free flow of labor and buying and selling of land. These feudal restrictions on land ownership were especially strong in continental Europe. China had a relatively more liberal land market, hampered only by weak customary traditions.[61] Bound labor, such as serfdom and slavery were more prevalent in Europe than in China, even during the Manchu conquest.[62] Urban industry in the West was more restrained by guilds and state-enforced monopolies than in China, where in the 18th century the principal monopolies governed salt and foreign trade through Guangzhou.[63] Pomeranz rejects the view that market institutions were the cause of the Great Divergence, and concludes that China was closer to the ideal of a market economy than Europe.[61]
State prohibition of new technology
Jared Diamond in the book Guns, Germs, and Steel argues that explicit outlawing of new technology was an important explanation for the divergence. For example, in China in 1432, a new Emperor outlawed the building of ocean-going ships, in which China was the world leader at the time. Diamond traces this to differences in geography. Outside Europe advanced cultures developed in areas whose geography was conducive to large, monolithic, isolated empires. In these conditions policies of technological and social stagnation could persist. On the other hand, Europe's geography favored balkanization into smaller, closer, nation-states, as its many natural barriers (mountains, rivers) provide defensible borders. As a result, governments that suppressed economic and technological progress soon corrected their mistakes or were out-competed relatively quickly. He argues that geographical factors created the conditions for more rapid internal superpower change (Spain succeeded by France and then by the United Kingdom) than was possible elsewhere in Eurasia.
The East stops innovating
The attitude of the east towards innovation is one of the other factors that might have played a much bigger role in the west’s advancements over the east. As David Landes explained, after a few centuries of innovations and inventions, it seemed like the east stopped trying to innovate and began to sustain what they had. They kept nurturing their pre-modern inventions and did not move forward with the modern times. China decided to continue a self-sustaining process of scientific and technological advancement on the basis of their indigenous traditions and achievements.[64] The east’s attitude towards innovation showed that they focused more on experience, while the west focused on experimentation. The east did not see the need to improve on their inventions and thus from experience, focused on their past successes. While they did this, the west was focused more on experimentation and trial by error, which led them to come up with new and different ways to improve on existing innovations and create new ones.[65]
Differences in wages and living standards
Classical economists, beginning with Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus, argued that high wages in the West stimulated labor-saving technological advancements.[66][67] Economic historian Robert Allen has argued that high wages, cheap capital and very cheap energy in Britain made it the ideal place for the industrial revolution to occur.[68] These factors made it vastly more profitable to invest in research and development, and to put technology to use in Britain than other societies.[68]
However, more recent studies have depicted living standards in 18th century China and pre-Industrial Revolution Europe as comparable.[9][69] Life expectancy in China and Japan for adult males were 39.6 and 41.1 respectively, compared with 34 for England, between 27.5 and 30 for France, and 24.7 for Prussia.[70] Chinese laborers in the Yangtze delta consumed 4,600 calories per day on average (laborers in China overall consumed 2,637 calories on average) compared with 2,000-2,500 calories per day for England.[71] According to Pomeranz and others, there was modest per capita growth in both regions,[72] the Chinese economy was not stagnant, and in many areas, especially agriculture, was ahead of Western Europe.[73] Chinese cities were also ahead in public health.[74]
Luxury consumption
Luxury consumption is regarded by many scholars to have stimulated the development of capitalism and thus contributed to the Great Divergence.[75] Proponents of this view argue that workshops, which manufactured luxury articles for the wealthy, gradually amassed capital to expand their production and then emerged as large firms producing for a mass market; they believe that Western Europe's unique tastes for luxury stimulated this development further than other cultures. However, others counter that luxury workshops were not unique to Europe; large cities in China and Japan also possessed many luxury workshops for the wealthy,[76] and that luxury workshops do not necessarily stimulate the development of "capitalistic firms".[77]
Property rights
Differences in property rights have been cited as a possible cause of the Great Divergence. This view states that Asian merchants could not develop and accumulate capital because of the risk of state expropriation and claims from fellow kinsmen, which made property rights very insecure compared to those of Europe.[78] However, others counter that many European merchants were de facto expropriated through defaults on government debt, and that the threat of expropriation by Asian states was not much greater than in Europe, except in Japan.[79]
Government and policies are seen as an integral part of modern societies and have played a major role in how different economies have been formed. The Eastern societies had governments which were controlled by the ruling dynasties and thus, were not a separate entity. Their governments at the time lacked policies that fostered innovation and thus resulted in slow advancements. As explained by Cohen, the east had a restrictive system of trade that went against the free world market theory; there was no political liberty or policies that encouraged the capitalist market (Cohen, 1993). This was in contrast to the western society that developed commercial laws and property rights which allowed for the protection and liberty of the marketplace. Their capitalist ideals and market structures encouraged innovation.[80][81][82][83]
Pomeranz (2000) argues that much of the land market in China was free, with many supposedly hereditary tenants and landlords being frequently removed or forced to sell their land. Although Chinese customary law specified that people within the village were to be offered the land first, Pomeranz states that most of the time the land was offered to more capable outsiders, and argues that China actually had a freer land market than Europe.[61] Pomeranz does not address the most common form of land sale, known as the conditional sale. The conditional sale allowed the seller to return to the buyer many years after the sale, and many times, to demand extra payments. He also does not account for the inability of landlords to collect rent on second crops.
However, Robert Brenner and Chris Isett emphasize differences in land tenancy rights. They argue that in the lower Yangtze, most farmers either owned land or held secure tenancy at fixed rates of rent, so that neither farmers nor landlords were exposed to competition. In 15th century England, lords had lost their serfs, but were able to assert control over almost all of the land, creating a rental market for tenant farmers. This created competitive pressures against subdividing plots, and the fact that plots could not be directly passed on to sons forced them to delay marriage until they had accumulated their own possessions. Thus in England both agricultural productivity and population growth were subject to market pressures throughout the early modern period.[84]
New World
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A variety of theories posit Europe's unique relationship with the New World as a major cause of the Great Divergence. The high profits earned from the colonies and the slave trade constituted 7 percent a year, a relatively high rate of return considering the high rate of depreciation on pre-industrial capital stocks, which limited the amount of savings and capital accumulation.[17] Early European colonization was sustained by profits through selling New World goods to Asia, especially silver to China.[85] According to Pomeranz, the most important advantage for Europe was the vast amount of fertile, uncultivated land in the Americas which could be used to grow large quantities of farm products required to sustain European economic growth and allowed labor and land to be freed up in Europe for industrialization.[86] New World exports of wood, cotton, and wool are estimated to have saved England the need for 23 to 25 million acres (100,000 km2) of cultivated land (by comparison, the total amount of cultivated land in England was just 17 million acres), freeing up immense amounts of resources. The New World also served as a market for European manufactures.[87]
Chen (2012) also suggested that the New World as a necessary factor for industrialization, and trade as a supporting factor causing less developed areas to concentrate on agriculture supporting industrialized regions in Europe.[15]
High-level equilibrium trap
The high-level equilibrium trap theory argues that China did not undergo an indigenous industrial revolution since its economy was in a stable equilibrium, where supply and demand for labor were equal, disincentivizing the development of labor-saving capital.
Culture
Rosenberg and Birdzell claims that the so-called "eastern culture" of "respect" and "unquestionable devotion" to the ruling dynasty was as a result of a culture where the control of the dynasty led to a "silent society" that "did not ask questions or experiment without the approval or order from the ruling class". On the other hand, they claimed that the West of the late medieval era did not have a central authority or absolute state, which allowed for a free flow of ideas (Rosenberg, Birdzell, 1986). This so-called "eastern culture" also supposedly showed a "dismissal of change" due to their "fear of failure" and disregard for the imitation of outside inventions and science; this was different from the "western culture" which they claimed to be willing to experiment and imitate others to benefit their society. They claimed that this was a culture where change was encouraged, and sense of anxiety and disregard for comfort led them to be more innovative. Max Weber argued in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism that capitalism in northern Europe evolved when the Protestant work ethic (particularly Calvinist) influenced large numbers of people to engage in work in the secular world, developing their own enterprises and engaging in trade and the accumulation of wealth for investment. In his book The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism he blames Chinese culture for the non-emergence of capitalism in China. Chen (2012) similarly claims that cultural differences were the most fundamental cause for the divergence, arguing that the Humanism of the Renaissance followed by the Enlightenment (including revolutionary changes in attitude towards religion) enabled a mercantile, innovative, individualistic, and capitalistic spirit. For Ming Dynasty China, he claims there existed repressive measures which stifled dissenting opinions and nonconformity. He claimed that Confucianism taught that disobedience to one's superiors was supposedly tantamount to "sin". In addition Chen claimed that merchants and artificers had less prestige than they did in Western Europe.[15] Justin Yifu Lin has argued for the role of the imperial examination system in removing the incentives for Chinese intellectuals to learn mathematics or to conduct experimentation.[14]
However, many scholars who have studied Confucian teachings have criticized the claim that the philosophy promoted unquestionable loyalty to one's superiors and the state. The core of Confucian philosophy itself was already Humanistic and Rationalistic; it "[does] not share a belief in divine law and [does] not exalt faithfulness to a higher law as a manifestation of divine will."[88]
One of the central teachings of Confucianism is that one should remonstrate with authority. Many Confucians throughout history disputed their superiors in order to not only prevent the superiors and the rulers from wrongdoing, but also to maintain the independent spirits of the Confucians.[89]
Furthermore, the merchant class of China throughout all of Chinese history were usually wealthy and held considerable influence above their supposed social standing.[90] Historians like Yu Yingshi and Billy So have shown that as Chinese society became increasingly commercialized from the Song dynasty onward, Confucianism had gradually begun to accept and even support business and trade as legitimate and viable professions, as long as merchants stayed away from unethical actions. Merchants in the meantime had also benefited from and utilized Confucian ethics in their business practices. By the Song period, the Scholar-officials themselves were using intermediary agents to participate in trading.[90] This is true especially in the Ming-Qing dynasties, when the social status of merchants had rose to such significance[91][92][93] that by the late Ming period, many scholar-officials were unabashed to declare publicly in their official family histories that they had family members who were merchants.[94] Consequently, while Confucianism did not actively promote profit seeking, it did not hinder China’s commercial development either.
Of the developed cores of the Old world, India was distinguished by its caste system of bound labor, which hampered economic and population growth and resulted in relative underdevelopment compared to other core regions. Compared with other developed regions, India still possessed large amounts of unused resources. India's caste system gave an incentive to elites to drive their unfree laborers harder when faced with increased demand, rather than invest in new capital projects and technology. The Indian economy was characterized by vassal-lord relationships, which weakened the motive of financial profit and the development of markets; a talented artisan or merchant could not hope to gain much personal reward. Pomeranz argues that India was not a very likely site for an industrial breakthrough, despite its sophisticated commerce and technologies.[95]
Aspects of Islamic law have been proposed as one explanation for the divergence for the Muslim world. Islamic institutions which had at earlier stages promoted development later started preventing more advanced development by hampering formation of corporations, capital accumulation, mass production, and impersonal transactions.[96] Several other explanations have been proposed including the gradual prohibition of independent religious judgements (Ijtihad) and a strong communalism which limited contacts with outside groups and the development of institutions dealing with more temporary interactions of various kinds.[97]
In his book A Farewell to Alms, Gregory Clark argues that the human psychological traits (such as literacy, numeracy, and delayed gratification) needed for the divergence spread in England between 1200 and 1800 "at least culturally and perhaps also genetically".[98]
Political fragmentation
Joel Mokyr has argued that political fragmentation (the presence of a large number of European states) made it possible for heterodox ideas to thrive, as entrepreneurs, innovators, ideologues and heretics could easily flee to a neighbouring state in the event that the one state would try to suppress their ideas and activities. This is what set Europe apart from the technologically advanced, large unitary empires such as China and India. China had both a printing press and movable type, and India had similar levels scientific and technological achievement as Europe in 1700, yet the industrial revolution would occur in Europe, not China or India. In Europe, political fragmentation was coupled with an "integrated market for ideas" where Europe's intellectuals used the lingua franca of Latin, had a shared intellectual basis in Europe's classical heritage and the pan-European institution of the Republic of Letters.[99]
Economic historian Tuan-Hwee Sng has argued that the large size of the Chinese state contributed to its relative decline in the 19th century:[100]
The vast size of the Chinese empire created a severe principal-agent problem and constrained how the country was governed. In particular, taxes had to be kept low due to the emperor's weak oversight of his agents and the need to keep corruption in check. The Chinese state's fiscal weaknesses were long masked by its huge tax base. However, economic and demographic expansion in the eighteenth century exacerbated the problems of administrative control. This put a further squeeze on the nation's finances and left China ill-prepared for the challenges of the nineteenth century.
One reason why Japan was able to modernize and adopt the technologies of the West was due to its much smaller size relative to China.[101]
Economic effects
![](../I/m/Maquina_vapor_Watt_ETSIIM.jpg)
The Old World methods of agriculture and production could only sustain certain lifestyles. Industrialization dramatically changed the European economy and allowed it to attain much higher levels of wealth and productivity than the other Old World cores. Although Western technology later spread to the East, differences in uses preserved the Western lead and accelerated the Great Divergence.[57]
Productivity
When analyzing comparative use-efficiency, the economic concept of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) is applied to quantify differences between countries.[57] TFP analysis controls for differences in raw material inputs across countries and is then used to calculate productivity. The difference in productivity levels, therefore, reflects efficiency of raw materials use rather than the raw materials themselves.[102] TFP analysis has shown that Western countries had higher TFP levels on average in the 19th century than Eastern countries such as India or China, showing that Western productivity had surpassed the East.[57]
Per capita income
Some of the most striking evidence for the Great Divergence comes from data on per capita income.[57] The West's rise to power directly coincides with per capita income in the West surpassing that in the East. This change can be attributed largely to the mass transit technologies, such as railroads and steamboats, that the West developed in the 19th century.[57] The construction of large ships, trains, and railroads greatly increased productivity. These modes of transport made moving large quantities of coal, corn, grain, livestock and other goods across countries more efficient, greatly reducing transportation costs. These differences allowed Western productivity to exceed that of other regions.[57]
Economic historian Paul Bairoch has estimated the GDP per capita of several major countries in 1960 US dollars after the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century, as shown below.[103]
![](../I/m/Biaroch_European_GDP_per_capita_1830-1890.svg.png)
His estimates show that the GDP per capita of Western European countries rose rapidly after industrialization.
For the 18th century, and in comparison to non-European regions, Bairoch in 1995 stated that, in the mid-18th century, "the average standard of living in Europe was a little bit lower than that of the rest of the world."[12]
Agriculture
Before and during the early 19th century, much of continental European agriculture was underdeveloped compared to Asian Cores and England. This left Europe with abundant idle natural resources. England, on the other hand, had reached the limit of its agricultural productivity well before the beginning of the 19th century. Rather than taking the costly route of improving soil fertility, the English increased labor productivity by industrializing agriculture. From 1750 to 1850, European nations experienced population booms; however, European agriculture was barely able to keep pace with the dietary needs. Imports from the Americas, the reduced caloric intake required by the newly forming proletariat, and the consumption of appetite suppressants such as tea allowed England to cope with the food shortages.[104] By the turn of the 19th century, much European farmland had been eroded and depleted of nutrients. Fortunately, through improved farming techniques, the import of fertilizers, and reforestation, Europeans were able to recondition their soil and prevent food shortages from hampering industrialization. Meanwhile, many other formerly hegemonic areas of the world were struggling to feed themselves – notably China.[105]
Fuel and resources
The global demand for wood, a major resource required for industrial growth and development, was increasing in the first half of the 19th century. A lack of interest of silviculture in Western Europe, and a lack of forested land, caused wood shortages. By the mid-19th century, forests accounted for less than 15% of land use in most Western European countries. Fuel costs rose sharply in these countries throughout the 18th century and many households and factories were forced to ration their usage, and eventually adopt forest conservation policies. It was not until the 19th century that coal began providing much needed relief to the European energy shortage. China had not begun to use coal on a large scale until around 1900, giving Europe a huge lead on modern energy production.[106]
Through the 19th century, Europe had vast amounts of unused arable land with adequate water sources. However, this was not the case in China; most idle lands suffered from a lack of water supply, so forests had to be cultivated. Since the mid-19th century, northern China's water supplies have been declining, reducing its agricultural output. By growing cotton for textiles, rather than importing, China exacerbated its water shortage.[107] During the 19th century, supplies of wood and land decreased considerably, greatly slowing growth of Chinese per capita incomes.[108]
Trade
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During the era of European imperialism, periphery countries were often set up as specialized producers of specific resources. Although these specializations brought the periphery countries temporary economic benefit, the overall effect inhibited the industrial development of periphery territories. Cheaper resources for core countries through trade deals with specialized periphery countries allowed the core countries to advance at a much greater pace, both economically and industrially, than the rest of the world.[109]
Europe's access to a larger quantity of raw materials and a larger market to sell its manufactured goods gave it a distinct advantage through the 19th century. In order to further industrialize, it was imperative for the developing core areas to acquire resources from less densely populated areas, since they lacked the lands required to supply these resources themselves. Europe was able to trade manufactured goods to their colonies, including the Americas, for raw materials. The same sort of trading could be seen throughout regions in China and Asia, but colonization brought a distinct advantage to the West. As these sources of raw materials began to proto-industrialize, they would turn to import substitution, depriving the hegemonic nations of a market for their manufactured goods. Since European nations had control over their colonies, they were able to prevent this from happening.[5] Britain was able to use import substitution to its benefit when dealing with textiles from India. Through industrialization, Britain was able to increase cotton productivity enough to make it lucrative for domestic production, and overtake India as the world's leading cotton supplier.[45] Although Britain had limited cotton imports to protect its own industries, they allowed cheap British products into colonial India from the early 19th century.[110] The colonial administration failed to promote Indian industry, preferring to export raw materials.[111]
Western Europe was also able to establish profitable trade with Eastern Europe. Countries such as Prussia, Bohemia and Poland had very little freedom in comparison to the West; forced labor left much of Eastern Europe with little time to work towards proto-industrialization and ample manpower to generate raw materials.[112]
Guilds and journeymanship
A 2017 study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics argued, "medieval European institutions such as guilds, and specific features such as journeymanship, can explain the rise of Europe relative to regions that relied on the transmission of knowledge within closed kinship systems (extended families or clans)".[113] Guilds and journeymanship were superior for creating and disseminating knowledge, which contributed to the occurrence of the Industrial Revolution in Europe.[113]
See also
- Colonial empire
- Western empires
- Modern history
- Second European colonization wave (19th century–20th century)
- Rise of the New Imperialism
- Economic history of China (pre-1911)
- Joseph Needham
- History of Western civilization
- Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution
Books
- A Farewell to Alms
- Before and Beyond Divergence
- The Clash of Civilizations
- Civilization: The West and the Rest
- The Civilizing Process
- The European Miracle
- Great Divergence and Great Convergence
- The Great divergence: China, Europe, and the making of the modern world economy
- Guns, Germs, and Steel
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
- The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community
- The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
- Why the West Rules—For Now
References
- ↑ Maddison 2007, p. 382, Table A.7
- ↑ Buringh, Eltjo; van Zanden, Jan Luiten: "Charting the “Rise of the West”: Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries", The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 69, No. 2 (2009), pp. 409–445 (416–417, tables 1 & 2)
- 1 2 3 Frank 2001.
- 1 2 Jones 2003.
- 1 2 Pomeranz 2000, pp. 242–243.
- ↑ Phases of global demographic transition correlate with phases of the Great Divergence and Great Convergence. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. Volume 95, June 2015, p. 163; see also Great Divergence and Great Convergence. A Global Perspective.
- ↑ Maddison 2001, pp. 51–52.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, pp. 36, 219–225.
- 1 2 3 Hobson 2004, p. 77.
- 1 2 Parthasarathi 2011, p. 38-45.
- 1 2 Robert C. Allen, Tommy Bengtsson, Martin Dribe (2005), Living Standards in the Past: New Perspectives on Well-Being in Asia and Europe, page 173, Oxford University Press
- 1 2 Chris Jochnick, Fraser A. Preston (2006), Sovereign Debt at the Crossroads: Challenges and Proposals for Resolving the Third World Debt Crisis, pages 86-87, Oxford University Press
- ↑ Allen 2009, p. 548.
- 1 2 Justin Yifu Lin, "Demystifying the Chinese Economy", 2011, Cambridge University Press, Preface xiv, http://assets.cambridge.org/97805211/91807/frontmatter/9780521191807_frontmatter.pdf
- 1 2 3 Chen 2012.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 219.
- 1 2 Pomeranz 2000, p. 187.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 241.
- ↑ North & Thomas 1973, pp. 11–13.
- ↑ Bolt, Jutta; van Zanden, Jan Luiten (2014-08-01). "The Maddison Project: collaborative research on historical national accounts". The Economic History Review. 67 (3): 627–651. ISSN 1468-0289. doi:10.1111/1468-0289.12032.
- ↑ North & Thomas 1973, pp. 16–18.
- ↑ Allen 2001.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, pp. 31–69, 187.
- 1 2 Feuerwerker 1990, p. 227.
- ↑ Elvin 1973, pp. 7, 113–199.
- 1 2 3 Broadberry, Stephen N.; Guan, Hanhui; Li, David D. (2017-04-01). "China, Europe and the Great Divergence: A Study in Historical National Accounting, 980-1850". SSRN 2957511
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- ↑ Elvin 1973, pp. 204–205.
- 1 2 "China has been poorer than Europe longer than the party thinks". The Economist. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
- ↑ Elvin 1973, pp. 91–92, 203–204.
- ↑ Myers & Wang 2002, pp. 587, 590.
- ↑ Myers & Wang 2002, p. 569.
- ↑ Myers & Wang 2002, p. 579.
- ↑ Broadberry, Stephen; Gupta, Bishnupriya (2006-02-01). "The early modern great divergence: wages, prices and economic development in Europe and Asia, 1500–18001". The Economic History Review. 59 (1): 2–31. ISSN 1468-0289. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2005.00331.x.
- ↑ Data table in Maddison A (2007), Contours of the World Economy I–2030 AD, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199227204
- ↑ Habib 1969.
- ↑ Parthasarathi 2011, pp. 180–182.
- ↑ Parthasarathi 2011, pp. 59, 128, 138.
- ↑ Parthasarathi 2011, p. 2.
- 1 2 Jeffrey G. Williamson, David Clingingsmith (August 2005). "India’s Deindustrialization in the 18th and 19th Centuries" (PDF). Harvard University. Retrieved 2017-05-18.
- 1 2 3 Junie T. Tong (2016), Finance and Society in 21st Century China: Chinese Culture Versus Western Markets, page 151, CRC Press
- 1 2 3 John L. Esposito (2004), The Islamic World: Past and Present 3-Volume Set, page 190, Oxford University Press
- 1 2 3 Ray, Indrajit (2011). Bengal Industries and the British Industrial Revolution (1757-1857), Routledge, ISBN 1136825525
- 1 2 Karl J. Schmidt (2015), An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History, page 100, Routledge
- ↑ Om Prakash, "Empire, Mughal", History of World Trade Since 1450, edited by John J. McCusker, vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2006, pp. 237-240, World History in Context, accessed 3 August 2017
- 1 2 3 Broadberry & Gupta 2005.
- ↑ James Cypher (2014). The Process of Economic Development. Routledge.
- ↑ Shombit Sengupta, Bengals plunder gifted the British Industrial Revolution, The Financial Express, February 8, 2010
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 251.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 214.
- 1 2 3 4 "Japan and the Great Divergence, 730-1874 | Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers | Working Papers". www.economics.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2017-05-13.
- ↑ Kim 2012, p. 137.
- ↑ Kim 2012, pp. 165–168, 229–250.
- ↑ Kim 2012, p. 274.
- ↑ Kim 2012, p. 270–273.
- ↑ Koyama, Mark (2017-06-15). "Jared Rubin: Rulers, religion, and riches: Why the West got rich and the Middle East did not?". Public Choice: 1–4. ISSN 0048-5829. doi:10.1007/s11127-017-0464-6.
- ↑ Islahi, Abdul Azim. "Book review. The long diverfence: how Islamic law held back the Middle East by Timur Kuran".
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Clark & Feenstra 2003.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 65.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, pp. 62–66.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 70.
- 1 2 3 Pomeranz 2000, pp. 70–71.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 82.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, pp. 87, 196.
- ↑ Landes 2006, p. 5.
- ↑ Lin 1995, p. 276.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 49.
- ↑ Allen 2009, pp. 525–526.
- 1 2 Crafts, Nicholas (2011-04-01). "Explaining the first Industrial Revolution: two views". European Review of Economic History. 15 (1): 153–168. ISSN 1361-4916. doi:10.1017/S1361491610000201.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 36.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 37.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 39.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 107.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, pp. 45–48.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 46.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, pp. 114–115.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 163.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 164.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 169.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 170.
- ↑ Landes 2006.
- ↑ Lin 1995.
- ↑ Rosenberg, Nathan (1986). How The West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation Of The Industrial World. New York Basic Books.
- ↑ Waley-Cohen, Joanna (1993). "China and Western Technology in the Late Eighteenth Century". The American Historical Review. 99 (5): 1525–1544. JSTOR 2167065.
- ↑ Brenner & Isett 2002.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 190.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 264.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, p. 266.
- ↑ Juergensmeyer, Mark (2005). Religion in global civil society. Oxford University Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-19-518835-6.
- ↑ See for example, Xu Fuguan 徐復觀, Xueshu yu Zhengzhi zhi jian 學術與政治之間. (Taibei: Taiwan Xuesheng Shuju, 1980), 101–126, 331–395, 497–502.
- 1 2 Gernet, Jacques (1962). Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250–1276. Translated by H.M. Wright. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-0720-0 pp. 68–69
- ↑ Yu Yingshi 余英時, Zhongguo Jinshi Zongjiao Lunli yu Shangren Jingshen 中國近世宗教倫理與商人精神. (Taibei: Lianjing Chuban Shiye Gongsi, 1987).
- ↑ Billy So, Prosperity, Region, and Institutions in Maritime China. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), 253–279.
- ↑ Billy So, “Institutions in market economies of premodern maritime China.” In Billy So ed., The Economy of Lower Yangzi Delta in Late Imperial China. (New York: Routledge, 2013), 208–232.
- ↑ Brook, Timothy. (1998). The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22154-0 p. 161
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, pp. 212–214.
- ↑ Timur Kuran, The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East, 2010, Princeton University Press, http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9273.html
- ↑ Timur Kuran Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE) / Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft Vol. 153, No. 1, The New Institutional Economics Religion and Economics (March 1997), pp. 41–71 Published by: Mohr Siebeck GmbH & Co. KG Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40752985
- ↑ Clark, Gregory (2007). A Farewell to Alms. Princeton University Press. pp. 8, 11, 120, 165, 271. ISBN 978-0-691-12135-2.
- ↑ "Mokyr, J.: A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy. (eBook and Hardcover)". press.princeton.edu. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
- ↑ Sng, Tuan-Hwee (2014-10-01). "Size and dynastic decline: The principal-agent problem in late imperial China, 1700–1850". Explorations in Economic History. 54: 107–127. doi:10.1016/j.eeh.2014.05.002.
- ↑ Koyama, Mark; Moriguchi, Chiaki; Sng, Tuan-Hwee (2015-10-28). "Geopolitics and Asia's Little Divergence: A Comparative Analysis of State Building in China and Japan after 1850". SSRN 2682702
.
- ↑ Comin 2008.
- ↑ Bairoch 1976, p. 286, table 6
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, pp. 215–219.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, pp. 223–225.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, pp. 219–225.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, pp. 230–238.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, pp. 228–219.
- ↑ Williamson 2008.
- ↑ Parthasarathi 2011, pp. 128, 226–227, 244.
- ↑ Parthasarathi 2011, pp. 252–258.
- ↑ Pomeranz 2000, pp. 257–258.
- 1 2 de la Croix, David; Doepke, Matthias; Mokyr, Joel. "Clans, Guilds, and Markets: Apprenticeship Institutions and Growth in the Pre-Industrial Economy". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. doi:10.1093/qje/qjx026.
Works cited
- Allen, Robert (2001), "The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War" (PDF), Explorations in Economic History, 38: 411–447, doi:10.1006/exeh.2001.077
- —— (2009), "Agricultural productivity and rural incomes in England and the Yangtze Delta, c. 1620–c. 1820", The Economic History Review, 62 (3): 525–550, doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2008.00443.x
- Bairoch, Paul (1976), "Europe's Gross National Product: 1800–1975", Journal of European Economic History, 5 (2): 273–340
- Brenner, Robert; Isett, Christopher (2002), "England's Divergence from China's Yangzi Delta: Property Relations, Microeconomics, and Patterns of Development", The Journal of Asian Studies, 61 (2): 609–662, doi:10.2307/2700302
- Broadberry, Stephen N.; Gupta, Bishnupriya (2005), "Cotton textiles and the great divergence: Lancashire, India and shifting competitive advantage, 1600–1850", International Macroeconomics and Economic History Initiative, Centre for Economic Policy Research
- Chen, Kunting (2012), "Analysis of the Great Divergence under a United Endogenous Growth Model" (PDF), Annals of Economics and Finance, 13 (2): 317–353
- Clark, Gregory; Feenstra, Robert C. (2003), "Technology in the Great Divergence", in Bordo, Michael D. (ed.), Globalization in Historical Perspective (PDF), University of Chicago Press, pp. 277–320, ISBN 978-0-226-06600-4, doi:10.3386/w8596
- Comin, Diego (2008), "Total Factor Productivity" (PDF), in Durlauf, Seven N. and Blume, Lawrence E. (eds.), The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (2nd ed.), Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 329–331, ISBN 978-0-333-78676-5, doi:10.1057/9780230226203.1719
- Elvin, Mark (1973), The Pattern of the Chinese Past, Stanford University Press, ISBN 978-0-8047-0876-0
- Feuerwerker, Albert (1990), "Chinese Economic History in Comparative Perspective", in Ropp, Paul S., Heritage of China, University of California Press, pp. 224–241, ISBN 978-0-520-06441-6
- Frank, Andre (2001), "Review of The Great Divergence", Journal of Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press, 60 (1): 180–182, doi:10.2307/2659525
- Habib, Irfan (1969), "Potentialities of Capitalistic Development in the Economy of Mughal India", The Journal of Economic History, 29 (1): 32–78, JSTOR 2115498
- Hobson, John M. (2004), The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-54724-6
- Jones, Eric (2003) [1st ed. 1981], The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia (3rd ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-52783-5
- Landes, David (2006), "Why Europe and the West? Why Not China?", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20 (2): 3–22, doi:10.1257/jep.20.2.3
- Lin, Justin Yifu (1995), Economic Development and Cultural Change, 43 (2): 269–292, JSTOR 1154499 Missing or empty
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(help) - Maddison, Angus (2001), The World Economy, Volume 1: A Millennial Perspective, OECD Publishing, ISBN 978-92-64-18608-8
- —— (2007), Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-922721-1
- Myers, H. Ramon; Wang, Yeh-Chien (2002), "Economic developments, 1644–1800", in Peterson, Willard, The Ch'ing Empire to 1800, The Cambridge History of China, 9, Cambridge University Press, pp. 563–647, ISBN 978-0-521-24334-6
- North, Douglass C.; Thomas, Robert Paul (1973), The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic History, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29099-9
- Parthasarathi, Prasannan (2011), Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600–1850, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-139-49889-0
- Pomeranz, Kenneth (2000), The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-09010-8
- Williamson, Jeffery G. (2008), "Globalization and the Great Divergence: terms of trade booms, volatility and the poor periphery, 1782–1913", European Review of Economic History, 12 (03): 355–391, doi:10.1017/S136149160800230X
- Kim, Jinwung (2012), History of Korea: From "Land of the Morning Calm" to States in Conflict, Indiana University Press, ISBN 978-0-253-00024-8
Further reading
- Ray, Indrajit (2011). Bengal Industries and the British Industrial Revolution. Routledge. ISBN 1136825525.
- Scheidel, Walter (2009), "From the 'Great Convergence' to the 'First Great Divergence': Roman and Qin-Han State Formation and its Aftermath", in Scheidel, Walter, Rome and China. Comparative perspectives on ancient world empires, Oxford University Press, pp. 11–23, ISBN 978-0-19-971429-2, doi:10.2139/ssrn.1096433.
External links
- The Maddison-Project – Estimates of economic growth between 1 and 2010