Econ 210a: Fall 2006: Readings for November 8--Catch-Up: Major Discussion Headings

• Adam Smith (1776), The Wealth of Nations, entire http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWNtoc.html:
  • Who is Smith's audience?
  • What kind of a book is the Wealth of Nations?
  • What does Smith think his game-changing insight is?
    • Is Smith correct? Is it a game-changing insight?
    • Is the insight in fact true?
  • What does Smith leave out of the Wealth of Nations?
    • Self-interest in the narrow and in the extreme...
    • Law and order...
    • Government failure...
    • A theory of the moral sentiments...
• Jan de Vries (1994), "The Industrious Revolution and the Industrial Revolution," Journal of Economic History 54:2 (June), pp. 249-70 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0507%28199406%2954%3A2%3C249%3ATIRATI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8:
  • How does Jan de Vries see the Low Countries in 1800 differing from the Low Countries in 1500?
  • The curious aspect of what did the peasants do in the nighttime in 1500...
  • What did peasants do in the nighttime in 1800?
  • What caused this difference?
    • Change in tastes?
    • Change in law-and-order?
    • Change in transportation costs?
      • A reflection of government policy? Or of technology?
    • Look east to China...
• Patrick O'Brien (1982), "European Economic Development: the Contribution of the Periphery," Economic History Review, 1-18. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-0117%28198202%292%3A35%3A1%3C1%3AEEDTCO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W:
  • Could European industrialization have been fueled by exploitation of the America?
  • Exploitation there was--a hell of a lot of exploitation.
  • But how do you get resources from there to here?
    • Possible channels
• Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson (2005), "The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change and Economic Growth," American Economic Review http://econ-www.mit.edu/faculty/download_pdf.php?id=1181:
  • A possible answer to O'Brien's question:
    • Merchants and political power
    • Bristol
    • Amsterdam
    • But counterexamples:
      • La Rochelle
      • Seville
      • Barcelona
      • Venice