This introductory course to Global Economic History starts from a classic question: why did capitalism and industrialisation emerge in Europe, particularly in England, and not elsewhere – in China to start with? The first series of lectures (1 to 6) reviews and discusses the main thesis that have been brought forward. They all relate, more or less directly, to given chapters in the theory of economic growth: trade and market integration, property rights and wage labour, institutions and state-building, finance, colonialism. The point however is not to propose a grand theory or a panoramic narrative, but to explore successive entries into our subject.
Then, lectures 8 to 12 are about Western capitalism at its height and how it structured a new, integrated, global economy. One issue is late industrialisation and economic catch-up in the (then) emerging economies: Germany will be our case of choice. We will then move to the global goods and capital markets, colonisation and imperialism, and the underlying fault-lines at work during the First Global Era that surfaced in the years immediately before and after World War I.
Flavia CANESTRINI,Jérôme SGARD
Cours magistral seul
English
Autumn 2022-2023
- a 3-hours, take-home final exam (30% of total mark).
Students will have to read one or two book chapters or articles per lecture. They will be made available to them in advance.