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The road to the Industrial Revolution: hypotheses and conjectures about the medieval origins of the ‘European Miracle’

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  • van Zanden, Jan Luiten

Abstract

The article uses various ways of measuring the efficiency of institutions regulating market exchange, such as interest rates, the skill premium, and the level of market integration, to try to answer the question about the quality of institutions in the different parts of Eurasia in the centuries before the ‘Great Divergence’. It appears that Western Europe, from as early as the late medieval period, had a relatively well-developed set of institutions. By contrast, South and Southeast Asian institutions were much less geared towards well-functioning markets. However, Japan and China in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries developed institutions that were relatively efficient, and resulted in relatively high levels of commercial exchange. A number of hypotheses are then reviewed that may help to explain a European head start dating from the late Middle Ages.

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  • van Zanden, Jan Luiten, 2008. "The road to the Industrial Revolution: hypotheses and conjectures about the medieval origins of the ‘European Miracle’," Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(3), pages 337-359, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:jglhis:v:3:y:2008:i:03:p:337-359_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Wahl, Fabian, 2016. "Does medieval trade still matter? Historical trade centers, agglomeration and contemporary economic development," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 50-60.
    2. Osamu Saito, 2010. "An Industrious Revolution In An East Asian Market Economy? Tokugawa Japan And Implications For The Great Divergence," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(3), pages 240-261, November.
    3. Jan Luiten van Zanden, 2012. "In Good Company: About Agency and Economic Development in Global Perspective," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(S1), pages 16-27.
    4. Fabian Wahl, 2017. "Does European development have Roman roots? Evidence from the German Limes," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 313-349, September.
    5. Fabian Wahl, 2014. "Origins of Political Change Ñ The Case of Late Medieval Guild Revolts," Working Papers 0069, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    6. Hans-Bernd Schaefer & Rok Spruk, 2024. "Islamic Law, Western European Law and the Roots of Middle East's Long Divergence: a Comparative Empirical Investigation (800-1600)," Papers 2401.14435, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.

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