scholarly journals Patrick O’Brien on industrialization, little Britain and the wider world

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Peer Vries

Abstract Patrick O’Brien has dedicated most of his career to studying British economic history, focusing on the Industrial Revolution, its antecedents, characteristics and consequences. He has always paid attention to long-term developments and never confined himself to strictly economic aspects. From the late 1990s onward, he increasingly turned ‘global’. His importance for global history cannot be overstated. His essay in this issue presents the outcome of his long intellectual journey. I will in this rejoinder try to assess his approach and his findings and comment on Patrick as a scholar and as a person. As we are close friends I will be critical.

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Jerven

AbstractIf we take recent income per capita estimates at face value, they imply that the average medieval European was at least five times ‘better off’ than the average Congolese today. This raises important questions regarding the meaning and applicability of national income estimates throughout time and space, and their use in the analysis of global economic history over the long term. This article asks whether national income estimates have a historical and geographical specificity that renders the ‘data’ increasingly unsuitable and misleading when assessed outside a specific time and place. Taking the concept of ‘reciprocal comparison’ as a starting point, it further questions whether national income estimates make sense in pre-and post-industrial societies, in decentralized societies, and in polities outside the temperate zone. One of the major challenges in global history is Eurocentrism. Resisting the temptation to compare the world according to the most conventional development measure might be a recommended step in overcoming this bias.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul K. Gellert ◽  
Paul S. Ciccantell

Predominant analyses of energy offer insufficient theoretical and political-economic insight into the persistence of coal and other fossil fuels. The dominant narrative of coal powering the Industrial Revolution, and Great Britain's world dominance in the nineteenth century giving way to a U.S.- and oil-dominated twentieth century, is marred by teleological assumptions. The key assumption that a complete energy “transition” will occur leads some to conceive of a renewable-energy-dominated twenty-first century led by China. After critiquing the teleological assumptions of modernization, ecological modernization, energetics, and even world-systems analysis of energy “transition,” this paper offers a world-systems perspective on the “raw” materialism of coal. Examining the material characteristics of coal and the unequal structure of the world-economy, the paper uses long-term data from governmental and private sources to reveal the lack of transition as new sources of energy are added. The increases in coal consumption in China and India as they have ascended in the capitalist world-economy have more than offset the leveling-off and decline in some core nations. A true global peak and decline (let alone full substitution) in energy generally and coal specifically has never happened. The future need not repeat the past, but technical, policy, and movement approaches will not get far without addressing the structural imperatives of capitalist growth and the uneven power structures and processes of long-term change of the world-system.


Author(s):  
Mauricio Drelichman ◽  
Hans-Joachim Voth

This epilogue argues that Castile was solvent throughout Philip II's reign. A complex web of contractual obligations designed to ensure repayment governed the relationship between the king and his bankers. The same contracts allowed great flexibility for both the Crown and bankers when liquidity was tight. The risk of potential defaults was not a surprise; their likelihood was priced into the loan contracts. As a consequence, virtually every banking family turned a profit over the long term, while the king benefited from their services to run the largest empire that had yet existed. The epilogue then looks at the economic history version of Spain's Black Legend. The economic history version of the Black Legend emerged from a combination of two narratives: a rich historical tradition analyzing the decline of Spain as an economic and military power from the seventeenth century onward, combined with new institutional analysis highlighting the unconstrained power of the monarch.


Histories ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 108-121
Author(s):  
Satoshi Murayama ◽  
Hiroko Nakamura

Jan de Vries revised Akira Hayami’s original theory of the “Industrious Revolution” to make the idea more applicable to early modern commercialization in Europe, showcasing the development of the rural proletariat and especially the consumer revolution and women’s emancipation on the way toward an “Industrial Revolution.” However, Japanese villages followed a different path from the Western trajectory of the “Industrious Revolution,” which is recognized as the first step to industrialization. This article will explore how a different form of “industriousness” developed in Japan, covering medieval, early modern, and modern times. It will first describe why the communal village system was established in Japan and how this unique institution, the self-reliance system of a village, affected commercialization and industrialization and was sustained until modern times. Then, the local history of Kuta Village in Kyô-Otagi, a former county located close to Kyoto, is considered over the long term, from medieval through modern times. Kuta was not directly affected by the siting of new industrial production bases and the changes brought to villages located nearer to Kyoto. A variety of diligent interactions with living spaces is introduced to demonstrate that the industriousness of local women was characterized by conscience-driven perseverance.


1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 773-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. Coleman

The intention of this paper is to look at some of the problems which arise in attempts to provide ‘explanations’ of mercantilism and especially its English manifestations. By ‘explanations’ I mean the efforts which some writers have made causally to relate the historical appearance of sets of economic notions or general recommendations on economic policy or even acts of economic policy by the state to particular long-term phenomena of, or trends in, economic history. Historians of economic thought have not generally made such attempts. With a few exceptions they have normally concerned themselves with tracing and analysing the contributions to economic theory made by those labelled as mercantilists. The most extreme case of non-explanation is provided by Eli Heckscher's reiterated contention in his two massive volumes that mercantilism was not to be explained by reference to the economic circumstances of the time; mercantilist policy was not to be seen as ‘the outcome of the economic situation’; mercantilist writers did not construct their system ‘out of any knowledge of reality however derived’. So strongly held an antideterminist fortress, however congenial a haven for some historians of ideas, has given no comfort to other historians – economic or political, Marxist or non-Marxist – who obstinately exhibit empiricist tendencies. Some forays against the fortress have been made. Barry Supple's analysis of English commerce in the early seventeenth century and the resulting presentation of mercantilist thought and policy as ‘the economics of depression’ has passed into the textbooks and achieved the status of an orthodoxy.


Author(s):  
P. Mozias

The article discusses economic aspects of the strategic partnership of Russia and China, in particular, the dynamics of bilateral trade, the changes in its structure, the need for our country to pursue a long-term industrial policy in order to depart from mainly commodity orientation of exports to China. It is concluded that the situation in the bilateral trade situation could not satisfy the Russian partners because it contradicts to the objectives of the development perspective and to the challenges of modernizing Russian economy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bobby V. Reddy

Big Tech has flourished on the US public markets in recent years with numerous blue-chip IPOs, from Google and Facebook, to new kids on the block such as Snap, Zoom, and Airbnb. A key trend is the burgeoning use of dual-class stock. Dual-class stock enables founders to divest of equity and generate finance for growth through an IPO, without losing the control they desire to pursue their long-term, market-disrupting visions. Bobby Reddy scrutinises the global history of dual-class stock, evaluates the conceptual and empirical evidence on dual-class stock, and assesses the approach of the London Stock Exchange and ongoing UK regulatory reforms to dual-class stock. A policy roadmap is presented that optimally supports the adoption of dual-class stock while still protecting against its potential abuses, which will more effectively attract high-growth, innovative companies to the UK equity markets, boost the economy, and unleash the true potential of 'founders without limits'.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik A. Hobbie ◽  
Janet Chen ◽  
Paul J. Hanson ◽  
Colleen M. Iversen ◽  
Karis J. Mcfarlane ◽  
...  

Abstract. We used δ15N and δ13C patterns from 16 peat depth profiles to interpret changes in C and N cycling in the Marcell S1 forested bog in northern Minnesota over the past ~ 10 000 years. In multiple regression analyses, δ15N and δ13C correlated strongly with depth, plot location, C / N, %N, and each other. Continuous variables in the regression model mainly reflected 13C and 15N fractionation accompanying N and C losses, with an estimated 40 % of fractionations involving C-N bonds. In contrast, nominal variables such as plot, depth, and vegetation cover reflected peatland successional history and climate. Higher δ15N and lower δ13C in plots closer to uplands may reflect distinct hydrology and accompanying shifts in C and N dynamics in the lagg drainage area surrounding the bog. The Suess effect (declining δ13CO2 since the Industrial Revolution) and aerobic decomposition lowered δ13C in recent surficial samples. A decrease of 1 ‰ in the depth coefficient for δ15N from −35 cm to −25 cm probably indicated the depth of ectomycorrhizal activity after tree colonization of the peatland. Low δ13C at −213 cm and −225 cm (~ 8500 years BP) corresponded to a warm period during a sedge-dominated rich fen stage, whereas higher δ13C thereafter reflected subsequent cooling. Because of multiple potential mechanisms influencing δ13C, there was no clear evidence for the influence of methanogenesis or methane oxidation on bulk δ13C.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 205-210
Author(s):  
Yong-Sheng Xu

The economy of European countries developed rapidly after the Western Industrial Revolution, and the rural areas of European countries also experienced long-term failure and depression. In the process of urbanization construction, the rural construction also faced many problems. In particular, after the urbanization rate exceeded 50%, European countries took targeted measures to revitalize rural areas in response to many problems in rural development, promoting the development process of urban-rural integration. Especially in Europe in the value orientation in the process of rural construction, there are many worth learning and using for reference of experience, in this paper, the European countries value index selection of rural construction, and implementation of rural construction scheme under this value orientation [1] research summary, draw lessons from the mature experience of the European countries rural construction, combined with China’s national conditions related to rural revitalization of advice are put forward.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32
Author(s):  
Yasdinul Huda ◽  
Delsina Faiza

The research aims to provide broad access to education for people in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 through various higher education institutions that actively participate using the Blended Learning model. The long-term goal of this research is to develop innovative and flexible learning models based on Smart Classroom. System design in this study was developed to realize a balance between virtual teaching (virtual class) and face-to-face (physical class) that takes place at the same time using the Live Video Webcasting service. The research method uses a quantitative approach and the type of research is R & D adopting the Thiagarajan 4D development model. This research produces a Smart Classroom system based on Streaming Webcast through several stages, namely: (1) System Design, (2) System Creation, (3) System Testing. This developed system allows interaction in learning in the physical class as well as teaching in a virtual class remotely.Keywords: Revolusi Industri 4.0, Blended Learning, Smart Classroom, Live Video Webcasting.


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