Economics and World History: Myths and Paradoxes

by Paul Bairoch

Paul Bairoch sets the record straight on twenty commonly held myths about economic history. Among these are that free trade and population growth have historically led to periods of economic growth; that a move away from free trade caused the Great Depression; and that colonial powers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries became rich through the exploitation of the Third World. Bairoch argues that these beliefs are based on insufficient knowledge and misguided interpretations of the economic history of the United States, Europe, and the Third World.

"A challenging and readable introduction to some major controversial themes in modern international economic history."—Peter J. Cain, International History Review

"Paul Bairoch sheds fascinating light on many of the accepted truths of modern economic an intriguing account, well executed."—Alfred L. Malabre, Jr., Economics Editor, Wall Street Journal

Genres: Economics, History, Nonfiction, World History

200 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 1993

About the author

One of the great post-war economic historians who specialized in global economic history, urban history and historical demography. He published or co-authored more than two dozen books and 120 scholarly articles. More...

Reviews

[David]

Bairoch was a contrarian but he did his homework. In EaWH, he serves bite-sized attacks against several great myths, a smattering of smaller ones and a few unnoticed discontinuities. It's generally directed against self-satisfied economists who project current-day clichés into the past, more specifically against liberals, in passing grazing some marxist relics and taking down the dependentistas too. The only ones remaining standing theoretically is an absent fourth quadrant, namely a Bismarckian étatism, but the reader can't help but notice that at the time of writing the free traders remain standing practically. Indeed where Bairoch excels at quantifying stagnation and growth, at times demonstrating how (f.i.) protectionism is correlated with greater rates of growth than openness to trade, he refrains from positively making a case for cause and effect of policies. This leaves societies buoys on indifferent tides of macro-economic change.

The book is much better at shredding laws than offering new ones. Where he appears to do so, he often tosses the hot potato over to the historian. At one point, he argues against hyperfocusing on numbers: GDP in the 3rd World, for one, could grow comfortably between the moment of decolonization and the 70s, when Import Substitution Industralisation worked to maximize autocentric provision of basic goods and textiles, but that same growth ceased once that substitution had exhausted itself. A continuous growth over two periods can hide that the engine of growth has changed significantly, and a break can vice versa suggest policy failure when it was rather the rules rewarding or sanctioning policy that failed.

Fun snack that's bound to damage some of your priors in digestion.

[Sara]

The road to underdevelopment

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An economic history classic, often quoted as it proves, from a definetely non-marxist perspective and through a data-driven analysis, how trade liberalization hinders economic development in countries that have not industrialized yet.

Published in 1993, the book aims to debunk a series of historical fallacies, especially in the fields of trade and development economics. Its coeverage of the economic effects of free-trade policies in Europe, its colonies and the US over the past three centuries is still sharp in its use of quantitative evidence.

The book however is hopelessly weak as it totally ignores the role of finance as the real 'prize' of colonialism (this was already clear to Lenin at the beginning of the twentieth century). Reading colonialism only through its trade flows without taking account of capital balances leads the author to a distorted evaluation of its effects.

For neoliberals of all parties.

[sube]

This book seeks to criticise a series of myths: from protectionism causing the 1929 depression, to industrialization relying on colonialism (both via importing raw resoruces and colonies being outlets) to primary goods asp rimary exports of countries necessarily leading to underdevelopment; there are many more attacked. To do this, he uses a lot of statistics and empirical data - making convincing cases for why these myths are unconvincing. At times however the book feels like attacking strawmans, as the author refuses to cite examples to attack in their arguments. Nonetheless, the book is a convincing argument on the various myths cited to be wrong and alternative explanations - though w.r.t. colonialism it becomes questionable what his alternative explanation is. At times, he reverses the usual causality, i.e. industrialization led to higher consumption rates which made colonialism only possible, while in other cases he indicates it is contigent and that western-style industrialization is possible without colonies.

All in all, it is an important book showing that "there is no ‘law’ or rule in economics that is valid for every period of history or for every economic structure" (p. 164).

[Dominic Foo]

A very data laden book focused on many great economic myths, among which includes the idea that free trade leads to economic development, it didn't in the case of 19th century Western development where he shows quite persuasively that their industries only developed through protectionist policies, and the other major myth being that the Western industrial development was heavily dependent upon exploiting the resources of the colonies or using them as a market for their manufactures. It wasn't the case to any significant extent.

[Damilola Ojikutu]

Paul Bairoch is a very intelligent man and the format of “here is this economic myth here is the data supporting an alternate position” is very easy to read. If you dont know anything about European protectionism and data about colonialism this book is there.

There is some malthusianism and far reaching claims in the book but it definitely will help you learn about European trade policy, specialities and balance books about colonialism. Honestly making a book to dunk on Douglas Irwin is powerful. Highly recommend if interested on data on colonialism and free trade in Europe.

[KT]

An interesting and engaging read dispelling economic myths centred on the theme of universal economic laws that are inconsistent across history and state specificities
Although wasn't convinced by the author's Malthusian analysis and advocacy of low population growth rates for underdeveloped third world country