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THE
WEALTH
—S AND
POVERTY
OF
NATIONS
WHY SOME ARE SO RICH
AND SOME SO POOR
DAVID S. LANDES
ISBN
0393-04017-8 USA $30.00
CAN.
$39.99
F
or
the
last
six
hundred years,
the
world's
wealthiest economies have been mostly
European.
Late
in our century, the balance has begun
to shift toward Asia, where countries such as
Japan
have grown at astounding
rates.
Why have these dom-
inant nations been blessed, and why are
so
many
others still mired in poverty?
The answer lies in this important and timely book,
where David
S.
Landes,
taking his cue from Adam
Smith's The
Wealth
of
Nations,
tells the long, fascinat-
ing story of wealth and power throughout the world:
the creation of wealth, the paths of winners and losers,
the rise and fall
of
nations. He studies history as
a
process,
attempting to understand how the world's cul-
tures
lead to—or retard—economic and military suc-
cess and material achievement.
Countries of the West, Landes
asserts,
prospered
early
through the interplay
of a
vital, open society
focused
on
work and knowledge,
which
led to
increased productivity, the creation of new technolo-
gies, and the pursuit of change. Europe's key advantage
lay
in
invention
and
know-how,
as
applied
in
war,
transportation,
generation of power, and skill in metal-
work. Even such now banal inventions as eyeglasses
and
the clock were,
in
their day, powerful levers that
tipped the balance of world economic power. Today's
new economic winners are following much the same
roads
to power,
while
the
laggards
have somehow failed
to duplicate this crucial formula for success.
The key to relieving much of the world's poverty
lies
in
understanding the lessons history has
to
teach
us—lessons uniquely imparted
in
this towering work
of history.
DAVID
S.
LANDKS
is
professor emeritus
of
history
and
economics
at
Harvard
University
and the
author
of
Revolution in Time and Prometheus Unbound.
JACKET
DESIGN BY PAUL SMITH
FRONT
JACKET
ENGRAVING
©
CORBIS BETTMANN
BACK
JACKET
PAINTING
©
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN
ART,
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, D.C.
/
ART
RESOURCE,
NEW YORK
AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH
BY
JANE
REED, HARVARD NEWS OFFICE
"Truly
wonderful. No question that this
will
establish David Landes as preeminent in his
field
and
in his time." —John Kenneth Galbraith
"David Landes has written a masterly survey of the great successes and failures among the
world's historic economies. He does it
with
verve, broad vision, and a
whole
series of sharp
opinions that he is not shy about stating plainly. Anyone who thinks that a society's eco-
nomic success is independent of its moral and cultural imperatives obviously has another
think coming." —Robert Solow
"David Landes's new historical study of the emergence of the current distribution of wealth
and
poverty among the nations of the world is a picture of enormous sweep and brilliant
insight. The sense of historical contingency does not detract from the emergence of
repeated
themes in the encounters
which
led to European economic leadership. The incred-
ible wealth of learning is embodied in a light and vigorous prose
which
carries the reader
along irresistibly." —Kenneth Arrow
THE WEALTH AND POVERTY
OF NATIONS
Also
by DAVID S. LANDES
BANKERS AND
PASHAS
THE
UNBOUND
PROMETHEUS
REVOLUTION IN TIME
The
Wealth and Poverty
of
Nations
Why Some
Are So
Rich
and
Some
So
Poor
DAVID
S.
LANDES
WWNORTON& COMPANY
New York London
Copyright © 1998 by David S. Landes
All
rights reserved
Printed in the United States
of
America
First
Edition
For
information about permission to
reproduce
selections from this book, write to
Permissions,
W. W.
Norton
& Company, Inc.,
500
Fifth Avenue, New
York,
NY
10110.
The
text of this book is composed in Galliard
with
the display set in Modern MT Extended
Composition and manufacturing by the
Haddon
Craftsmen, Inc.
Book
design by lacques Chazaud
Cartography by lacques Chazaud
Library
of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Landes, David S.
The
wealth and poverty of nations : why some are so rich and some
so
poor / by David S. Landes,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
0-393-04017-8
1. Wealth—Europe—History. 2. Poverty—Europe—History.
3.
Regional economic disparities—History. 4. Economic history.
I.
Title.
HC240.Z9W45
1998
330.1
6—dc21
97-27508
CIP
W.
W.
Norton
& Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New
York,
NY. 10110
http
://www.
wwnor
ton
.com
W.
W.
Norton
& Company Ltd., 10 Coptic Street, London WC1A 1PU
12
34567890
For
my children and grandchildren,
with
love.
[...]... partiy because they die early They try to ensure a secure old age, if old age there be, by having lots of children who will grow up with a proper sense of fil ial obligation The old division o f the world into two power blocs, East and West, has subsided Now the big challenge and threat is the gap in wealth and health that separates rich and poor These are often styled North and South, because the division... with the lands o f the peoples of color toward or at the bottom o f the heap Yet in saying these things, Huntington was simply echoing the tra dition of moral geography Philosophers easily linked environment with temperament (hence the long-standing contrast between cold and hot, between sober thoughtfulness on the one hand, ebullient pleasure seeking on the other); while the infant discipline of anthropology... well as theirs, is to help the poor become healthier and wealthier I f we do not, they will seek to take what they cannot make; and if they cannot earn by exporting commodities, they will export people In short, wealth is an irresistible magnet; and poverty is a potentially rag ing contaminant: it cannot be segregated, and our peace and prosper ity depend in the long run on the well-being o f others... points of particular interest to the participants, with gains to my understanding of both the larger theme and its special aspects Given the multiplicity of these meetings plus a large number of personal conversations and consultations, it is not easy to pull together a comprehensive list of those who have helped me on these and other occasions My teachers first, whose lessons and example have stayed with... held responsible for the results, much as the weather forecaster is held responsible for the failure o f the sun to appear when one wishes to g o to the beach." Yet we are not the wiser for denial On a map of the world in terms of product or income per head, the rich countries lie in the temperate zones, particularly in the northern hemisphere; the poor countries, in the tropics and semitropics As John... without serious objection These repudiations have no parallel in the history of American higher education and undoubtedly reflect the intellectual weaknesses of the field: the lack of a theoretical basis, the all-embracing opportunism (more euphemistically, the catholic openness), the special "easiness" of human geography But behind those criticisms lay a dissatisfaction with some of the results Geography... vein, the larvae grow into small worms and mate The females lay thousands of thorned eggs—thorned to prevent the host from dislodging them These make their way to liver or intestines, tearing tissues as they g o The effect on organs may be imagined: they waste the liver, cause intestinal bleeding, produce carcinogenic lesions, interfere with digestion and elimination The victim comes down with chills and. .. geographic; but a more accurate signi fier would be the West and the Rest, because the division is also his toric Here is the greatest single problem and danger facing the world of the Third Millennium The only other worry that comes close is environmental deterioration, and the two are intimately connected, indeed are one They are one because wealth entails not only con sumption but also waste,... E WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONS about the weakening o f geographical constraints today in an age of tropical medicine and high technology, they have not vanished and were clearly more powerful earlier The world has never been a level playing field, and everything costs We begin with the simple, direct effects of environment and go on to the more complex, more mediated links Climate first The world... first The world shows a wide range of temperatures and temperature patterns, reflecting location, altitude, and the declination of the sun These differences directly affect the rhythm of activity of all species: in cold, northern winters, some animals simply curl up and hi bernate; in hot, shadeless deserts, lizards and serpents seek the cool under rocks or under the earth itself (That is why so many . WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONS Also by DAVID S. LANDES BANKERS AND PASHAS THE UNBOUND PROMETHEUS REVOLUTION IN TIME The Wealth and Poverty of Nations Why Some Are So Rich and Some . Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Landes, David S. The wealth and poverty of nations : why some are so rich and some so poor / by David S. Landes, p. cm. Includes bibliographical. of others—col- leagues, friends, students, journalists, witnesses to history, dead and alive. My first debt is to students and colleagues in courses at Columbia University, the University
Ngày đăng: 02/04/2014, 13:52
Xem thêm: The wealth and poverty of nations( 1998) (eng), The wealth and poverty of nations( 1998) (eng), Japan and Korea, c. 1850—The End of Tokugawa and Beginning of Meiji, Table 1.1: Scope and Incidence of Tropical Diseases, 1990, Table 16.1: Estimates of Real GNP per Capita for Selected Countries, Table 16.2: Estimates of Real GNP per Capita in Groups of European Countries, 1830–1913, Table 20.1: Product per Head and Population of Selected Frontier Countries, 1820–1989, Table 26.1: Annual Percentile Rates of Growth by Country, 1950–87