Debunk Mythology, Reorient Reality

Abstract

A sad comment on the state of the art on what Ken Pomeranz has called THE GREAT DIVERGENCE in the nineteenth century are the 160 pages of “Conference Proceedings” that reproduce word byword the “Discussions at the Conference” in search of explanations particularly of “World Economic Primacy in the 19 th Century.” This major international conference was sponsored by the Luxembourg Institute for European and International Studies in 2002. The speakers at the conference included such luminaries of “world” economic and other history as Moses Abramovitz, Martin Bronfenbrenner, Rondo Cameron, Charles Kindleberger, Angus Maddison, Peter Mathias, William McNeill, Joel Mokyr, Patrick O’Brien, W. W Rostow, and Jan de Vries, as well as the editors and others. Yet every one of them referred exclusively to characteristics of Britain and other countries in what one of the editors called “a standard discussion” (370) and in which a participant still insisted on an alleged claim that “at the mid-19th century…primacy [of Britain] is important and I think unprecedented in its degree” in a half dozen respects with its “structural change is very rapid, idiosyncratic” (351-352). Yet throughout the discussion, not one reference was made to the structure, operation, and transformation of the GLOBAL WORLD political economy within which Britain rose from being a relatively marginal player to momentary “primacy” (but not yet at mid-century) and within a couple of generations declined again.

Editors’ note: This chapter is an unpublished Chapter 1 from an unpublished book manuscript, ReOrient the 19th Century, that Gunder Frank was writing prior to his passing away. Other than a few syntax changes, the chapter is presented “as it is.” The book was written as a sequel to his earlier published book, ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age.