This wholly original reassessment of critical issues in modern Chinese history traces social, economic, and ecological change in inland North China during the late Qing dynasty and the Republic. Using many new sources, Kenneth Pomeranz argues that the development of certain regions entailed the systematic underdevelopment of other regions. He maps changes in local finance, farming, transportation, taxation, and popular protest, and analyzes the consequences for different classes, sub-regions, and genders. Pomeranz attributes these diverse developments to several causes: the growing but incomplete integration of North China into the world economy, the state's abandonment of many hinterland areas and traditional functions, and the effect of local social structures on these processes. He shows that hinterlands were made, not merely found, and were powerfully shaped by the strategies of local groups as well as outside forces.

The Making of a Hinterland: State, Society, and Economy in Inland North China, 1853-1937

Business & Money

Pomeranz, Kenneth

Economics

University of California Press

The Great Divergence brings new insight to one of the classic questions of history: Why did sustained industrial growth begin in Northwest Europe, despite surprising similarities between advanced areas of Europe and East Asia? As Ken Pomeranz shows, as recently as 1750, parallels between these two parts of the world were very high in life expectancy, consumption, product and factor markets, and the strategies of households. Perhaps most surprisingly, Pomeranz demonstrates that the Chinese and Japanese cores were no worse off ecologically than Western Europe. Core areas throughout the eighteenth-century Old World faced comparable local shortages of land-intensive products, shortages that were only partly resolved by trade.
 Pomeranz argues that Europe's nineteenth-century divergence from the Old World owes much to the fortunate location of coal, which substituted for timber. This made Europe's failure to use its land intensively much less of a problem, while allowing growth in energy-intensive industries. Another crucial difference that he notes has to do with trade. Fortuitous global conjunctures made the Americas a greater source of needed primary products for Europe than any Asian periphery. This allowed Northwest Europe to grow dramatically in population, specialize further in manufactures, and remove labor from the land, using increased imports rather than maximizing yields. Together, coal and the New World allowed Europe to grow along resource-intensive, labor-saving paths.
 Meanwhile, Asia hit a cul-de-sac. Although the East Asian hinterlands boomed after 1750, both in population and in manufacturing, this growth prevented these peripheral regions from exporting vital resources to the cloth-producing Yangzi Delta. As a result, growth in the core of East Asia's economy essentially stopped, and what growth did exist was forced along labor-intensive, resource-saving paths--paths Europe could have been forced down, too, had it not been for favorable resource stocks from underground and overseas.

The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World, 9)

Princeton University Press

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

Review Co-Winner of the 2001 Book Prize, World History AssociationExhaustively researched and brilliantly argued. . . . Suffice it to say that The Great Divergence is undoubtedly one of the most sophisticated and significant pieces of cliometric scholarship to be published of late, especially in the field of world history.---Edward R. Slack, Jr., Journal of World HistoryOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2000A profoundly though-provoking book which will change the terms of the debate about the origins of capitalism, the rise of the West and the fall of the East.---Jack Goody, Times Higher Education Supplement-- "Choice"The vast international disparity in incomes and standards of living between Western Europe and its offshoots on the one hand, and most of Asia, Africa, and Latin America on the other, is a striking feature of the modern world. Pomeranz's study is an important addition to the literature that challenges elements of every major interpretation of the European take-off.-- "Choice"This book is very important and will have to be taken seriously by anyone who thinks that explaining the Industrial Revolution . . . is crucial to our understanding of the modern world. . . . [A] book so rich that fresh insights emerge from virtually every page.---Robert B. Marks, American Historical ReviewThis book makes, bar none, the biggest and most important contribution to our new understanding of the causes and mechanisms that brought about the great divergence' between the West and the rest of China in particular. . . . An entirely new and refreshing departure. Although he makes new comparisons between Europe, China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, Pomeranz also connects all these and more in a bold new sweep that should immediately make all previous and most contemporary related work obsolescent.---Andre Gunde Frank, Journal of Asian Studies-- "Choice"Winner of the 2000 John K. Fairbank Prize, American Historical Association-- "Choice" Product Description 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. Review "A profoundly thought-provoking book."―Jack Goody, Times Higher Education Supplement"The biggest and most important contribution to our new understanding of the causes and mechanisms that brought about the great divergence between the West and the rest."―Andre Gunder Frank, Journal of Asian Studies"So rich that fresh insights emerge from virtually every page."―Robert B. Marks, American Historical Review"Exhaustively researched and brilliantly argued."―Edward R. Slack Jr., Journal of World History From the Back Cover "Pomeranz uses that European invention--economics--to overturn Eurocentrism, establishing beyond cavil a New Fact in our world. Never again will Europeans imagine they stood alone in the doorway of economic growth. Pomeranz and his colleagues in the new sinology have reintroduced the Central Kingdom and its stunning historical sources, and Pomeranz has written the one essential book."--Dei

The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (Princeton Classics)

International

The World That Trade Created: Culture, Society and the World Economy, 1400-1918

In more than 75 brief vignettes, authors Pomeranz and Topik offer unique and entertaining historical perspectives on the world economy, showing that much of 20th century "globalization" goes back centuries.

Topik, Steven

Routledge

Why are railroad tracks separated by the same four feet, eight inches as ancient Roman roads? How did 19th-century Europeans turn mountains of bird excrement from Peru into mountains of gold? Where has most of the world's oil come from in the 20th century? This new edition of "The World That Trade Created" reveals the answers to dozens of tantalizing questions like these. In a series of brief, highly readable vignettes the authors bring to life international trade and its actors - including migrants and merchants, pirates and privateers, sailors and slaves, traders and tree-tappers. In the process they make clear that the seemingly modern concept of economic globalization has deep historical roots. The authors also demonstrate that economic activity cannot be divorced from social and cultural contexts. This second edition provides enhanced coverage of Africa, the Middle East, and the 20th century, and features eighteen new vignettes, including two new pieces on oil.

The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture and the World Economy, 1400 to the Present (Sources and Studies in World History)

Marketing & Sales

The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture, and the World Economy - 1400 to the Present (Sources and Studies in World History)

In a series of brief vignettes the authors bring to life international trade and its actors, and also demonstrate that economic activity cannot be divorced from social and cultural contexts. In the process they make clear that the seemingly modern concept of economic globalisation has deep historical roots.

The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture and the World Economy, 1400 to the Present

Written for high school or beginning undergraduate students, this four-volume reference valiantly attempts to provide a historical framework for the perhaps overly broad concept of world trade. Entry topics were selected on trade organizations, influential people, commodities, events that affected trade, trade routes, navigation, religion, communic

Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present: From Ancient Times to the Present

Manning, Patrick

Bentley, Jerry H.

ECKES Jr., ALFRED E.

Northrup, Cynthia Clark

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pomeranz, Kenneth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pomeranz, Kenneth

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pomeranz, Kenneth. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Making of a Hinterland: State, Society, and Economy in Inland North China, 1853-1937

The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World, 9)

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

The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (Princeton Classics)

The World That Trade Created: Culture, Society and the World Economy, 1400-1918

The World That Trade Created: Culture, Society and the World Economy, 1400-1918

The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture and the World Economy, 1400 to the Present (Sources and Studies in World History)

The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture, and the World Economy - 1400 to the Present (Sources and Studies in World History)

The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture and the World Economy, 1400 to the Present

Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present: From Ancient Times to the Present