Download LPS-EH302 Course Outline

LSE-PKU Summer School 2016
LPS-EH302
Global Growth and Globalisation in History
Course Outline
Instructor
Professor Kent Deng is a Professor in the Department of Economic History at LSE. His research focuses on
China including peasantry, literati, maritime economic history, merchants, pre-modern and early modern
history, the state, and western influence, long-term demography of premodern China, the early modern
railway development in China and the Chinese fiscal state and its impact on the economy.
Professor Deng studied his Masters’ at the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences before undertaking his doctoral research under the world prominent economic historian Professor
Eric L. Jones in Melbourne, Australia. He specialises in China’s economic growth and development over the
very long run, and recent global history, and worked for universities in Australia and New Zealand before
joining LSE in 1995. His PhD dissertation won the best thesis award of the International Economic History
Association in 1994. Professor Deng is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS).
Course Summary
Unlike the traditional approach of ‘world history’, ‘global history’ examines how civilisations encountered,
shared, and exchanged without the artificial framework consisting of a hierarchy or hegemony in the world.
As a new approach to the history of human race, the main debate of global history has been the ‘Great
Divergence’ beginning in 2000. In the debate, living standards, or consumption, rather than production and
technology held by the traditional school has become the new benchmark to message economic
performance. This is revolutionary in our understanding of the entire human history since the time of ‘out
of Africa’ when the Homo sapiens departed from their early ecological niche and began a long journey to
populate our planet.
Of the major civilisations in the world, all the successful ones have been the products of peaceful contact,
connection and exchange with a degree of openness. Of course violence and wars did play a part between
peaceful contact, connection and exchange, and closing doors did happen. However, they were not the
mainstream statistically, otherwise the fate of the human race would have been doomed a long time ago.
Such a new approach sheds a new light in our understanding and interpretation of how we have got here
so far and where we will go in the future. History does repeat itself.
Students will benefit from this course in terms of understanding of global migration, global production
chain, global capital market, as well as global trade. They will also see the logic behind the rise the West,
the rise of the BRICS, and the formation and function of the UN, IMF, WTO and their like.
Background readings
Pomeranz, K. (2000). The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy,
Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press, pp. 29-68. (Common growth patterns)
Frank, A. G. (1998). ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley: University of California, pp. 16584. (Early global economy and global market)
Prerequisites
None; training in economics and/or history may be an advantage but is not essential.
Assessment
Midterm Essay: 30%
Final Exam: 70%
Course Overview and Tentative Reading List
Monday 8th August: General introduction and debate: What is ‘global growth and global
history’?
Discussion: What separates ‘global history’ from ‘world history’?


Frank, A. G. (1998). ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley: University of California,
pp. 231-60. (Theory)
O’Brien, Patrick (2006). ‘Historical Traditions and Modern Imperatives for the Restoration of Global
History’. Journal of global history, 1 (1) (2006), pp. 3-39. (Debate)
Tuesday 9th August: Global population expansion across the globe
Discussion: Why did the world population grow so slowly prior to the 18th century?


Livi-Bacci, Massimo (2012). A Concise History of World Population. 5th ed. Cambridge, [MA]: WileyBlackwell, ch. 2. (World population expansion)
Frank, A. G. (1998). ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley: University of California,
pp. 297-320. (Global demography)
Wednesday 10th August: Global origins of economic growth: donors and recipients
Discussion: Why and how did growth and development not take place evenly across the world?


Frank, A. G. (1998). ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley: University of California,
pp. 185-224. (Technology and institutions)
Hobson, J. M. (2004). The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, pp. 29-73. (China’s early leadership in the world)
Or,

Mokyr, Joel (1990). The Lever of Riches. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 209-238. (China’s
leadership in technology)
Thursday 11th August: Regional economic growth in the global context: natural resource reasons
Discussion: How valid is the Malthusian Model for global history?


Pamuk, S. (2007). The Black Death and the origins of the ‘Great Divergence’ across Europe, 1300–
1600’. European Review of Economic History, 11, pp. 289-317.
Lee, James, and Wang Feng (1999). ‘Malthusian Models and Chinese Realities: The Chinese
Demographic System 1700-2000’, Population and Development Review 25, no. 1 (1999): 33-65.
Friday 12th August: Regional economic growth in the global context: socio-political and socioeconomic reasons
Discussion: How important were war, the state and state-building in global history?

Voth, Hans-Joachim, and Nico Voigtlander (2009). “Malthusian Dynamism and the Rise of Europe:
Make War, Not Love.” American Economic Review. Papers and Proceedings 99, no. 2 (2009), pp.
248-54.

Brook, T. and Gregory Blue (1999). China and Historical Capitalism, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, pp. 57-109. (Cultural differences)

Rosenthal, Jean-Laurent and R. Bin Wong (2011). Before and Beyond Divergence, the Politics of
Economic Change in China and Europe. Cambridge [Mass.]: Harvard University Press, pp. 13-34, 99166. (Political systems and markets)
Or,
Or,
Monday 15th August: Economic growth towards globalisation: transport, trade and migration
Discussion: Was capitalism the main driving force for globalisation?


Kenwood, A. G. and A. L. Lougheed (1989). The Growth of the International Economy, 1820 – 1990.
London: Routledge Press, pp. 44-59 (International migration), 78-118 (International trade and
monetary systems), 163-78 (International economy).
Brook, T. and Gregory Blue (1999). China and Historical Capitalism, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, pp. 10-56. (Modern world-system).
Or,


Frank, A. G. (1998). ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley: University of California,
pp. 131-64. (Money and capitalism)
Moor, Karl and David Lewis (2009). The Origins of Globalization, London: Routledge Press, 2009, pp.
114-73. (Greek-Roman market economy)
Tuesday 16th August: Economic changes towards globalisation: empires, imperialism and
colonialism
Discussion: Why should Asia be seen as a key location for global growth and globalisation?

Gipouloux, Francois (2011). The Asian Mediterranean, Port Cities and Trading Networks in China,
Japan and Southeast Asia, 13th-21st Century, London: Edward Elgar, pp. 113-70. (Global trading with
Asia).

Vries, Peer (2015). State, Economy and the Great Divergence, London and New York: Bloomsbury
Press, pp. 381-408. (Traditional empires and modern empires)

Magee, G. B. and A. S. Thompson (2010). Empire and Globalisation, Networks of People, Goods and
Capital in the British World, c. 1850-1914, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 64-116.
(European emigration)
Hobson, J. M. (2004). The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, pp. 219-82. (Ideology of imperialism).
Or,

Wednesday 17th August: Pre-modern cycles of the global economy
Discussion: How did Asian civilisations lead the world in the past?


Hobson, J. M. (2004). The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, pp. 190-218. (Chinese origin of the industrial revolution)
Jones, E. L. The Record of Global Economic Growth, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Press, 2002, pp. 1963. (Global farming)
Or,

Frank, A. G. (1998). ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley: University of California,
pp. 258-320. (Economic power changing hands from Asia to Europe)

Frank, A. G. (1998). ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley: University of California,
pp. 165-84. (Early global economy and global market)
Or,
Thursday 18th August: Pre-modern cycles of the global economy
Discussion: Was rice-farming a negative factor in a global race for growth?


Jones, E. L. (1981). The European Miracle, 3rd Ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp.
45-125. (European growth conditions and growth pattern)
Bray, Francesca (1986). The Rice Economies, Technology and Development in Asian Societies.
Oxford: Blackwell, ch. 4. (Rice and the wider economy)
Or,

Jones, E. L. The Record of Global Economic Growth, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Press, 2002, pp. 99144. (Asian modernity)
Friday 19th August: Global growth engines of our current world
Discussion: What does the future hold for global growth and globalisation in the next 15 years?

Maddison, Angus, Chinese Economic Performance in the Long Run, 2nd Edition. Paris: OECD, 2007,
pp. 59-103 (Growth comparisons).

National Intelligence Council, USA, Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds. Washington NIC, 2012,
pp. 7-41, on line: https://globaltrends2030.files.worldpress.com (Megatrends of the world
economy).
Or,