Heckscher Reloaded? Mercantilism, the State, and Europe's Transition to Industrialization, 1600–1900

Bibliographic Data

ID8956152
AuthorsPhilipp Robinson Rössner (0000-0003-2542-4654, University of Manchester, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume58
Issue2
Pages663-683
Publication date2015-05-11
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x14000600
OpenAlexW2605809912
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited29

Recent years have seen an increase in the number of historical studies dealing with the state and its involvement in the process of economic growth, both prior to and during the transition known as industrialization. This is striking inasmuch as for a long time the state as an actor had been absent from the master narratives in history. It is still lacking in most studies on the Great Divergence, i.e. the story explaining the long-run differential growth trajectories between Europe and Asia, c. ad 1500–2000. It has been, likewise, missing in the more ‘Euro-centrist’ accounts on the perceived ‘European miracle’ – models that were to an extent influenced by neoclassical theory about market performance and economic development, which quite naturally saw little room for the pro-active state in the explanation of economic success, and against which much of the Great Divergence narrative was developed as an alternative model. As an actor, the state has also been missing from most of the accounts on Europe's first transition to industrialization. And it has had, until very recently, very little place in modern economic theory explaining long-run growth and economic change. Even the wider public opinion – just think of journalist T. Friedman's early 2000s best-seller The world is flat – had, by the late twentieth century, increasingly subscribed to the idea that free markets, unfettered globalization, and the ‘invisible hand’ were the best means to achieve economic health

China · Development economics · Divergence (linguistics · Economic history · Economic system · Economics · Economy · Globalization · Great Divergence · Industrialisation · Market economy · Mercantilism · Narrative · Neoclassical economics · Political economy · Political science · State (computer science · Australian History and Society · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law

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