1st Edition
Short History of Economic Progress A Course in Economic History
I The beginnings
Introduction: Some General Ideas
Population Growth and the New Agriculture 7
Urbanisation, Transport and the Growth of Markets 21
Machines and New Sources of Power 32
II Population
World Trends in Population Growth 53
The Accretion of People in Europe 53
Economic Conditions and Population Trends 67
III Agriculture
Progress in Agriculture: General Observations 96
The Widening of the World’s Cultivated Area and the Rising Per-caput Output of People Employed in Agriculture 100
Delays in the Emulation of Modern Farming Techniques in Eastern Europe 109
The Increasing Per Acre Yield of Cultivated Land 118
Capital and Organisation 124
IV Industry
The Coming of Industry: General Observations 145
Transport and the Transformation of Commerce 154
Science, Natural Resources and New Sources of Power 159
The Waning of the Political and Institutional Impediments to Economic progress in Continental Europe 161
The Industrialisation of North America 171
Industrial Progress in Pre-Revolutionary Russia 176
The Industrialisation of Japan 183
V The New Era
The Rise in Living Standards 196
The United States of America: Competition among Capitalists and the Rise of Organised Labour 204
The Soviet Union: Growth without Capitalistic Competition 217
Japan: Industrial Growth and International Competition 229
Israel: A Special Case 238
VI The Underdeveloped Countries
Thinly and Densely Populated Areas 264
Thinly Populated Countries 268
The ‘Overpopulated’ Countries 282
An Afterthought 292
Index 296
Biography
Y.S. Brenner
