Placeholder text

Go to cart

Two Paths to Prosperity

By Joel Mokyr

Two Paths to Prosperity

By Joel Mokyr

0 - Default Title
Description
How the social organization of Europe and China shaped their divergent economic and political trajectories over the past millennium In the eleventh century, when Europe was still backward and poor, China was a rich and sophisticated civilization. Yet Europe became the birthplace of democracy and the Industrial Revolution, driving the Great Enrichment, while China stagnated until the end of the twentieth century and was always ruled by autocracies. Two Paths to Prosperity traces the emergence of two very different social organizations in premodern China and Europe—the clan and the corporation—showing how they were key factors in the economic and political divergence of these two great civilizations. In this landmark book, three leading economists offer a bold new account of why Europe and China evolved along such different trajectories. In the early Middle Ages, public goods like risk sharing, religious worship, education, and conflict resolution were provided by nonstate organizations in both societies. China increasingly relied on kin-based cooperation within clans, while weaker kinship ties in Europe gave rise to corporations such as guilds, universities, and self-governing towns. Despite performing similar functions, clans and corporations were built on very different principles—with lasting consequences until today. Providing a novel answer to a fundamental question in economic and political history, Two Paths to Prosperity shows how extended kinship in Chinese society facilitated the consolidation of autocracy and hindered innovation and economic development, and how corporations in Europe influenced emerging state institutions and set the stage for the Industrial Revolution.
Product details
Number of Pages:
544
Release Date:
2025-11-04
Publication Date:
2025-11-04
Publisher:
Princeton University Press
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
0691265941
ISBN13:
9780691265940
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:
[email protected]
Weight:
922 g
Height:
163 cm
Width:
240 cm
Thickness:
40 cm
Buy on Amazon
Currently sold out