More A history of the world economy from the Iron Age to the Information Age

Philip Coggan

Book - 2020

"A sweeping history that tracks the development of trade and industry across the world, from Ancient Rome to today. From the development of international trade fairs in the twelfth century to the innovations made in China, India, and the Arab world, it turns out that historical economies were much more sophisticated that we might imagine, tied together by webs of credit and financial instruments much like our modern economy. Here, Philip Coggan takes us from the ancient mountains of North Wales through Grand Central station and the great civilizations of Mesopotamia to the factories of Malaysia, showing how changes in agriculture, finance, technology, work, and demographics have driven the progress of human civilization. It's the ...story of how trade became broader and deeper over thousands of years; how governments have influenced economies, for good or ill; and how societies have repeatedly tried to tame, and harness, finance. More shows how, at every step of our long journey, it was the connection between people that resulted in more trade, more specialization, more freedom, and ultimately, more prosperity."--

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Subjects
Published
New York : The Economist Books, PublicAffairs 2020.
Language
English
Main Author
Philip Coggan (author)
Edition
First U.S. edition
Item Description
"Originally published in 2019 by Profile Books Ltd. in Great Britaiin."--Title page verso.
Physical Description
xiii, 466 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 425-442) and index.
ISBN
9781610399838
  • The ancient economy
  • Agriculture
  • The Asian market: 200-1000CE
  • Europe revives: 1000-1500
  • The quest for energy
  • The great change: 1500-1820
  • Manufacturing: worshiping our makers
  • The first era of globalisation: 1820-1914
  • Immigration
  • World wars and depression: 1914-1945
  • Transport: the vital network
  • From the wonder years to the malaise: 1945-1979
  • Central banks: money and technocrats
  • The second era of globalisation: the developed world, 1979-2007
  • Government: an ever-present force
  • A truly global economy: the developing world, 1979-2007
  • Technology and innovation
  • The crisis and after: 2007 to today.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

"If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes the world to stock your house with goods"a broad-ranging survey of world trade and the global marketplace.Contrary to the stances of certain world leaders, including Donald Trump, trade is a good thing, and the freer the trade the better. So argues Economist columnist Coggan (The Last Vote: The Threats to Western Democracy, 2013, etc.) in this sweeping, nontechnical history of the rise of the modern world economy, which has taken a long, winding course over millennia. With the development of agriculture and settled towns and cities, labor was able to diversify and become specialized, with the scope of the economy broadening. A village first consumed only its own goods, but then the goods of the next village came into offer, and then the next, all aided by a growing network of traders, brokers, and other harbingers of the market economy. Throughout much of history, however, trade was sometimes an afterthought. As Coggan notes, "neither the Greeks nor Romans seemed to have believed that it was their duty to try to expand the economy as a whole," leaving it to Chinese, Arab, and Persian entrepreneurs to develop transcontinental trade routes. Europe later pulled ahead in a time of exploration and expansion, one that, in its mature phase, the author attributes to three factors: inexpensive transport, rising wages, and an improvement in living standards. The U.S. was a locus of this broadened economy. Coggan looks into past trends to suggest the outlines of future ones, such as a continued debate over state control of the economy. "Silicon Valley tycoons may think that they are setting the intellectual agenda with their calls to shrink the state," he writes, "but for many people in the rest of the world, the more appealing example is China, with its heavy state direction and near 40-year record of rapid growth." That widespread trade enriches is one thing, Coggan says, looking to the developing world, but it also serves as a means of encouraging democratization everywhere.A sharp, readable introduction to how the modern economy came to be. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.