Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-04T09:17:04.794Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How Fast and Why Did Early Capitalism Benefit the Majority?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Cynthia Taft Morris
Cynthia Taft Morris
Affiliation:
Cynthia Taft Morris is Charles N. Clark Professor of Economics at Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How long did it take for early rapid capitalist transformations to benefit the majority of the population? This essay examines three presumed success cases, concluding that rapid capitalist development took at least five decades to benefit the majority. A neglected political force for success was the effectiveness of local public and quasi-public institutions in creating wide networks of transportation and other public investments responsive to changing market requirements. Economists today should pay close attention to distributional benefits and local government effectiveness before urging western brands of capitalism on countries where failures to benefit the majority threaten severe political instability.

Type
Papers Presented at the Forty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , June 1995 , pp. 211 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abel, Wilhelm, Agricultural Fluctuations in Europe From the Thirteenth to the Twentieth Centuries, translated by Olive, Ordish (New York, 1980).Google Scholar
Adelman, Irma, and Morris, Cynthia Taft, Economic Growth and Social Equity in Developing Countries (Stanford, CA, 1973).Google Scholar
Barbour, Violet, Capitalism in 17th Century Amsterdam (Ann Arbor, MI, 1963).Google Scholar
Blackbourn, David, “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie: Reappraising German History in the Nineteenth Century,” in Blackbourn, David and Eley, Geoff, eds., The Peculiarities of German History: Bourgeois Society and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Germany (London, 1984), pp. 159–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borchardt, Knut, “Wirtschaftliches Wachstum und Wechsellagen 1800–1914,” in Zorn, Wolfgang, ed., Handbuch der Deutschen Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, vol. 2 (Stuttgart, 1976), pp. 198–275.Google Scholar
Boxer, C. R., The Dutch Seaborne Empire: 1600–1800 (New York, 1965).Google Scholar
Conze, Werner, “Sozialgeschichte, 1800–1850,” in Zorn, Wolfgang, ed., Handbuch der Deutschen Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, vol. 2 (Stuttgart, 1976), pp. 426–94.Google Scholar
Crafts, N. F. R., and Mills, Terrence C., “Trends in Real Wages in Britain, 1750–1913,” Explorations in Economic History, 31 (04. 1994), pp. 176–194.Google Scholar
Davis, Ralph, The Rise of the Atlantic Economies (Ithaca, NY, 1973).Google Scholar
De Vries, Jan, “On the Modernity of the Dutch Republic,“ this Journal, 33 (03. 1973), pp. 191–202.Google Scholar
De Vries, Jan, The Dutch Rural Economy in the Golden Age, 1500–1700 (New Haven, CT, 1974).Google Scholar
De Vries, Jan, “An Inquiry into the Behavior of Wages in the Dutch Republic and the Southern Netherlands, 1580–1800,” Acta Historiae Neerlandicae. Studies in the History of the Netherlands, 10 (1978), pp. 79–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eckhaus, Richard S., “The North-South Differential in Italian Economic Development,” this Journal, 29 (03. 1969), pp. 176–79.Google Scholar
Fischer, Wolfram, “Government Activity and Industrialization in Germany (1815–1870),” in Rostow, Walt W., ed., The Economics of Take-Off into Sustained Growth (London, 1963), pp. 83–94.Google Scholar
Fischer, Wolfram, Unternehmerschaft, Selbstverwaltung, und Staat: Die Handelskammern in der deutschen Wirtschafts- und Staatsverfassung des 19. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1964).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fockema, Andreae S. J., “Staats- en Rechtsleven onder de Republiek,” in Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, vol. 6, De Tachtigjarige Oorlog, 1609–1648 (Antwerp, 1953), pp. 61–88.Google Scholar
Franz, Günter, “Landwirtschaft, 1800–1850,” in Zorn, Wolfgang, ed., Handbuch der deutschen Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, vol. 2 (Stuttgart, 1976), pp. 276–320.Google Scholar
Frost, Lionel, “Government and Economic Development: The Case of Irrigation in Victoria,” Australian Economic History Review, 32 (03. 1992), pp. 47–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerschenkron, Alexander, “Agrarian Policies and Industrialization: Russia 1861–1917,” in Postan, M. M. and Habbakuk, H. J., eds., The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 6: The Industrial Revolutions and After, pt. 2, edited by Habbakuk, H. J. and Postan, M. M. (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 706–800.Google Scholar
Graaff, J. de V., Theoretical Welfare Economics (Cambridge, 1957).Google Scholar
Haushofer, Heinz, Die deutsche Landwirtschaft im technischen Zeitalter (Stuttgart, 1963).Google Scholar
Heffter, Heinrich, Die deutsche Selbstverwaltung im 19. Jahrhundert: Geschichte der Ideen und Institutionen (Stuttgart, 1950).Google Scholar
Jansma, T. S., “De Economische Opbloei van het Noorden,” in Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, vol. 6: De Tachtigjarige Oorlog, 1609–1648 (Antwerp, 1953), pp. 89–146.Google Scholar
Kaufhold, Karl Heinrich, “Handwerk und Industrie,” in Zorn, Wolfgang, ed., Handbuch der Deutschen Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, vol. 2 (Stuttgart, 1976), pp.321–68.Google Scholar
Klein, P. W., “De zeventiende eeuw (1585–1700),” in Stuijvenberg, J. H. Van, ed., De Economische Geschiedenis van Nederland (Groningen, 1977), pp. 79–118.Google Scholar
Kuczynski, Jürgen, Germany, 1800 to the Present Day, vol. 3, pt. 1, of Kuczynski, J., A Short History of Labour Conditions under Industrial Capitalism (London, 1945).Google Scholar
Kuznets, Simon, Modern Economic Growth: Rate, Structure, and Change (New Haven, 1966).Google Scholar
McCants, Anne E. C., “‘Comfort Us Out of Your Surplus:’ The Economy of Orphan Care in Early Modern Amsterdam” (Ph.D. diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994).Google Scholar
McLean, Ian W., “The Demand for Agricultural Research in Australia 1870–1914,” Australian Economic Papers, 21 (12. 1982), pp. 294–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milanovic, Branco, “A Cost of Transition: 50 Million New Poor and Growing Inequality,” Transition, 5 (10. 1994), pp. 1–4.Google Scholar
Morris, Cynthia Taft, “Politics, Development, and Equity in Five Land-Rich Countries in the Latter Nineteenth Century,” Research in Economic History, 14 (1992), pp.1–68.Google Scholar
Nipperdey, T., Gesellschaft, Kultur, Theorie: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur neun Geschichte (Göttingen, 1976), pp. 174–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noordegraaf, Leo, Holland welvaren? Levensstandard in Holland, 1450–1650 (Bergen, 1985).Google Scholar
North, Douglass C., and Thomas, Robert Paul, The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic History (Cambridge, 1973).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pincus, Jonathan J., “Government,” in Maddock, Rodney and McLean, Ian, eds, The Australian Economy in the Long Run (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 291–318.Google Scholar
Rawls, John, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA, 1971).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritter, Ulrich, Die Rolle des Staates in den Frühstadien der preussischen Industrialisierung (Berlin, 1961).Google Scholar
Roessingh, H. K., “Tobacco Growing in Holland in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: A Case Study of the Innovative Spirit of Dutch Peasants,” Acta Historiae Neerlandicae. Studies in the History of the Netherlands, 11 (1978), pp.18–54.Google Scholar
Rolfes, Max, “Landwirtschaft, 1850–1914,” in Zorn, Wolfgang, ed., Handbuch der Deutschen Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, vol. 2 (Stuttgart, 1976), pp. 495–526.Google Scholar
Saalfeld, Diedrich, “Lebensverhältnisse der Unterschichten Deutschlands im Neunzehnten Jahrhundert,” International Review of Social History, 29, pt. 2 (1984), pp.215–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sachs, Jeffrey, “The Economic Transformation of Eastern Europe: The Case of Poland,” Economics of Planning, 5 (no. 6, 1992), pp. 5–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, Amartya, “Freedom of Choice: Concept and Content,” European Economic Review, 32 (1988), pp. 269–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solow, Robert M., “Perspectives on Growth Theory,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 8 (Winter, 1984), pp. 45–54.Google Scholar
Supple, Barry, “The Nature of Enterprise,” in Postan, M. M. and Habbakuk, H. J., eds., The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 5: The Economic Organization of Early Modern Europe, edited by Rich, E. E. and Wilson, C. H.. (Cambridge, 1977), pp. 394–461.Google Scholar
“Stadt und Bürgertum im 19. Jahrhundert,” Historische Zeitschrift, Beiheft, , vol. 12 (Munich, 1990).Google Scholar
‘t Hart, Marjolein C., The Making of a Bourgeois State: War, Politics and Finance During the Dutch Revolt (Manchester, England, 1993).Google Scholar
Thimme, Paul, Strassenbau und Strassenpolitik in Deutschland, zur Zeit der Gründung des Zollvereins, 1825–1835 (Stuttgart, 1931).Google Scholar
Tilly, Richard H., Kapital, Staat und sozialer Protest in der deutschen Industrialisierung: Gesammelte Aufsätze, Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft 41 (Göttingen, 1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, Richard H., Vom Zollverein zum Industriestaat. Die wirtschaftlich-soziale Entwicklung Deutschlands 1834 bis 1914 (Munich, 1990).Google Scholar
Van Dillen, J. G., “Leiden als Industriestad tijdens de Republiek,” Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 59 (1946), pp. 25–51.Google Scholar
Vincens, Vives Jaime, and Olier, Jorge Nadal, An Economic History of Spain, translated by López-Morillas, Frances M. (3rd ed., Princeton, 1969).Google Scholar
White, Colin, Mastering Risk: Environment, Markets & Politics in Australian Economic History (Melbourne, 1992).Google Scholar
Wilson, C. H., “Trade, Society and the State,” in Postan, M. M. and Habbakuk, H. J., eds., The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 4: The Economy of Expanding Europe in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, edited by Rich, E. E. and Wilson, C. H. (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 487–575.Google Scholar