World Economic History before the Industrial Revolution, Spring 2009: Recent Episodes
Gregory Clark
This course details the nature and development of economies from pre-history to the Industrial Revolution. It explains how this was dramatically different from modern economies. Finally it considers what caused the Industrial Revolution, why it was in Europe, and why it was delayed till 1800.
How do the events in the English Industrial Revolution match up with theories of the origins of modern growth (chapters 11, 12)?
Clark details what happened in England between 1760 and 1860 in the first Industrial Revolution (chapter 12).
This is a discussion of the major prevailing theories of the onset of the Industrial Revolution (chapter 11).
Having analyzed the source of modern growth, we return to the mystery of why it took 100,000 years for it to arrive (chapter 11).
This lectures shows that technological advance is the key and only source of modern growth (chapter 10).
This lecture develops a simple mathematical model that illuminates the nature of economic growth since 1800 (chapter 10).
Professor Clark argues cultural change is an important element in explaining modern high growth societies (chapter 9).
Clark talks more about how people were changing between the Stone Age and 1800 (chapter 9).
Malthusian Theory predicts a world of statis. But in fact there are signs of surprising changes as we approach 1800. People were becoming less violent, more patient and more industrious (chapter 9).
Clark explains further why institutions explain much less about economic success and failures, in the past and now, than economists routinely believe.
Clark shows that pre-industrial institutions were not a barrier to technological advance (chapter 8).
This lecture uses Malthusian Theory to measure the rate of technological advance in the world 100,000 B.C. to 1800 A.D., and shows it was dramatically slower than in the modern world (chapter 7).
Professor Clark shows that pre-industrial England had very high rates of social mobility. This was not a society where talent was trapped at the bottom of society.
Clark further discusses the different sources of mortality and their social consequences in the Malthusian Era (chapter 5).
This lecture illustrates that in settled agrarian societies, survival of the richest was favoring a very different set of behaviors than in hunter-gatherer societies (chapter 6).
Professor Clark shows that a crucial difference between fertility before 1800 and now is that prior to 1800 the rich had a great advantage in producing surviving children (chapter 6).
Clark discusses the unusual nature of fertility limitation in pre-industrial societies (chapter 4).
Professor Clark gives evidence that there was no decline in fertility between the Stone Age and 1800 (chapter 4).
Professor Clark offers various ways we can measure the failure of the human condition to improve before 1800 (chapter 3).
Clark gives the empirical evidence for the failure of living standards to rise between 100,000 BC and 1800 (chapter 3).
Clark addresses a simple but powerful theory of the failure of living standards to improve before 1800 (chapter 2).
This class tackles the question: Why was there no improvement in human material conditions before 1800, and what triggered the Industrial Revolution? (Book chapter 1)