Why are some parts of the world so rich and others so poor? Why did the Industrial Revolution and the unprecedented economic growth that came with it occur in eighteenth-century England, and not at some other time, or in some other place? Why didn't industrialization make the whole world rich and why did it make large parts of the world even poorer? In A Farewell to Alms, Gregory Clark tackles these profound questions and suggests a new and provocative way in which culture not exploitation, geography, or resources explains the wealth, and the poverty, of nations. Countering the prevailing theory that the Industrial Revolution was sparked by the sudden development of stable political, legal, and economic institutions in seventeenth-century Europe, Clark shows that such institutions existed long before industrialization. He argues instead that these institutions gradually led to deep cultural changes by encouraging people to abandon hunter-gatherer instincts-violence, impatience, and economy of effort-and adopt economic habits-hard work, rationality, and education. The problem, Clark says, is that only societies that have long histories of settlement and security seem to develop the cultural characteristics and effective workforces that enable economic growth. For the many societies that have not enjoyed long periods of stability, industrialization has not been a blessing. Clark also dissects the notion, championed by Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel, that natural endowments such as geography account for differences in the wealth of nations. A brilliant and sobering challenge to the idea that poor societies can be economically developed through outside intervention, A Farewell to Alms may change the way global economic history is understood. / Reviews: "Right or wrong, or perhaps somewhere in between, Clark's is about as stimulating an account of world economic history as one is likely to find. Let's hope that the human traits to which he attributes economic progress are acquired, not genetic, and that the countries that grow in population over the next 50 years turn out to be good at imparting them. Alternatively, we can simply hope he's wrong." (Benjamin M. Friedman, New York Times Book Review) / "A Farewell to Alms asks the right questions, and it is full of fascinating details, like the speed at which information traveled over two millennia (prior to the 19th century, about one mile per hour). Clark's combination of passion and erudition makes his account engaging. When a light bulb goes off in my head, the first thing I ask myself is 'Would this be interest if it were true?' Clark's thesis definitely meets that test." (Samuel Bowles, Science ).
/ AUS DEM INHALT: / / / Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Introduction: The Sixteen-Page Economic History of the World
PART I The Malthusian Trap: Economic Life to 1800
2 The Logic of the Malthusian Economy 19
3 Living Standards 40
4 Fertility 71
5 Life Expectancy 91
6 Malthus and Darwin: Survival of the Richest 112
7 Technological Advance 133
8 Institutions and Growth 145
9 The Emergence of Modern Man 166
PART II The Industrial Revolution
10 Modern Growth: The Wealth of Nations 193
11 The Puzzle of the Industrial Revolution 208
12 The Industrial Revolution in England 230
13 Why England? Why Not China, India, or Japan? 259
14 Social Consequences 272
PART in The Great Divergence
15 World Growth since 1800 303
16 The Proximate Sources of Divergence 328
17 Why Isn't the Wliole World Developed? 352
18 Conclusion: Strange New World 371
Technical Appendix 379
References 383
Index 409
Figure Credits 419