Y. S. Brenner is an economist whose main concern is with development, and this attitude is reflected in his approach to economic history.
He begins this seminal study in the era of the Reformation in Europe, and bases it on the hypothesis that once started, economic progress will spread over ever-increasing parts of the earth wherever and whenever conditions become suitable. From this point of view, he examines the nature of the impediments which prevent the more rapid and general progress of mankind towards greater material affluence, while at the same time considering the positive growth promoting factors in the various economies. Thus, he provides an analysis of economic progress in the developed countries showing which natural, social, political and cultural forces promoted such progress and which delayed or hindered it. He attempts to explain why European nations took several decades to emulate the achievements of Britain and why nations in other parts of the world, such as Japan and Russia, were unable for a considerable time to match the advances made in parts of Western Europe and the United States. Finally, he attempts to explain why the developing countries are still finding it so difficult to catch up with the economic progress of the more advanced nations.
Y. S. Brenner was Head of the Department of Economics at Cape Coast University in Ghana. The book arose from a series of lectures on economic development he delivered there during the years 1966–1967. This book was first published in 1969.
I The beginnings
Introduction: Some General Ideas
Population Growth and the New Agriculture 7
Urbanisation, Transport and the Growth of Markets 21
Machines and New Sources of Power 32
II Population
World Trends in Population Growth 53
The Accretion of People in Europe 53
Economic Conditions and Population Trends 67
III Agriculture
Progress in Agriculture: General Observations 96
The Widening of the World’s Cultivated Area and the Rising Per-caput Output of People Employed in Agriculture 100
Delays in the Emulation of Modern Farming Techniques in Eastern Europe 109
The Increasing Per Acre Yield of Cultivated Land 118
Capital and Organisation 124
IV Industry
The Coming of Industry: General Observations 145
Transport and the Transformation of Commerce 154
Science, Natural Resources and New Sources of Power 159
The Waning of the Political and Institutional Impediments to Economic progress in Continental Europe 161
The Industrialisation of North America 171
Industrial Progress in Pre-Revolutionary Russia 176
The Industrialisation of Japan 183
V The New Era
The Rise in Living Standards 196
The United States of America: Competition among Capitalists and the Rise of Organised Labour 204
The Soviet Union: Growth without Capitalistic Competition 217
Japan: Industrial Growth and International Competition 229
Israel: A Special Case 238
VI The Underdeveloped Countries
Thinly and Densely Populated Areas 264
Thinly Populated Countries 268
The ‘Overpopulated’ Countries 282
An Afterthought 292
Index 296
