Directed at an audience of students and non-specialists, this book offers a broad introduction to the scholarly debates among economists and historians about a multitude of processes triggered by transoceanic trade across the planet between 1500 and 1800. In that era, northwestern Europe (and northeastern America) attained better living standards than the rest of the world, including the most developed areas of Asia and other parts of Europe. These changes, dubbed the Great (and the Little) Divergence, happened while Europe came to control a large portion of intercontinental trade and maritime transportation and started to colonize a large extent of the globe.
The authors examine these changes comparing three types of indicators across the globe: gdp per capita, real wages, and urbanization ratios. Most data derive from estimates of gdp per capita and long-term economic performance in the Maddison Project.1 Other figures stem from studies following Allen’s methodology in...