Cambridge University Press Explaining Long-Term Economic Change: 10 (New Studies in Economic and Social History, Series Number 10)

Product Description This book provides an introduction to, and critical review of, the competing models that have been developed to explain long-term and large-scale economic change. The global pattern of production and distribution has its origins in the historical heritage of component societies and in their physical difference. Attempts to explain the social and economic dynamics which have produced this pattern are usually couched in the form of 'models'. These theoretical constructions are designed to reduce the infinite variety of historical experience to manageable proportions for analytical purposes and look primarily at causal factors seen to have been crucial in the process of change and development. This book examines and illustrates these factors and the various established models used to explain long-term economic change, with emphasis on European and Asian history over the early modern period, c.1400–1800. Review "...this slim volume offers an introduction for students to comparative models explaining economic development....The clarity of exposition allows the neophyte student immediately to grasp the essential nature of and essential differences among principal models." John P. Powelson, The Journal of Asian Studies Book Description A concise and accessible examination of the established models used to explain long-term and large-scale economic change.