1st Edition

Short History of Economic Progress A Course in Economic History

By Y.S. Brenner Copyright 1969
    320 Pages
    by Routledge

    320 Pages
    by Routledge

    Y. S. Brenner is an economist whose main concern is with development, and this attitude is reflected in his approach to economic history.

    He begins this seminal study in the era of the Reformation in Europe, and bases it on the hypothesis that once started, economic progress will spread over ever-increasing parts of the earth wherever and whenever conditions become suitable. From this point of view, he examines the nature of the impediments which prevent the more rapid and general progress of mankind towards greater material affluence, while at the same time considering the positive growth promoting factors in the various economies. Thus, he provides an analysis of economic progress in the developed countries showing which natural, social, political and cultural forces promoted such progress and which delayed or hindered it. He attempts to explain why European nations took several decades to emulate the achievements of Britain and why nations in other parts of the world, such as Japan and Russia, were unable for a considerable time to match the advances made in parts of Western Europe and the United States. Finally, he attempts to explain why the developing countries are still finding it so difficult to catch up with the economic progress of the more advanced nations.

    Y. S. Brenner was Head of the Department of Economics at Cape Coast University in Ghana. The book arose from a series of lectures on economic development he delivered there during the years 1966–1967. This book was first published in 1969.

    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