I love short books written by experts. It's a good way to learn about a topic from someone you can trust. Une brève histoire de l'économie by Daniel Cohen is one of these books.
It covers the history of economics from the beginning of civilization to the present day and opens up with some questions about the future. It is good at explaining what you would expect:
- the history of economy (that started even before agriculture)
- the history of economic thought (Adam Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Friedman, Malthus, Keynes)
- a bit of prospective on the future of the economy (AI, ecological crisis, happiness).
It is worth mentionning that what the author says about AI seems well informed and up to date, which is not always the case in books written by boomers. What I liked even more is that the author mentions topics that I didn't expect and that I was happy to discover.
Why not China
I had heard before that China was the most advanced civilization for a while regarding technology and science, but I didn't know that it was much more than that. For instance, China was producing more coal for metallurgical purposes in the year 1000 than Europe (excluding Russia) in 1700. I learned about the Ming treasure voyages where Zheng He, an admiral, commanded a fleet of 70 ships and 30 000 men who explored Africa.
Everything was in place for China to become the dominant power in the world before England, but it didn't happen. The voyages were stopped, and the Industrial Revolution didn't happen in China first. This is called the Great Divergence.
The author mentions two main reasons for this regarding China:
- A geographical accident: coal was extracted in the North of the country. After China was invaded by the Mongols in the 14th century, the economical and demographic center of the country moved to the South, where there was no coal.
- Cultural reasons: after the Mongol invasion, the Chinese focused on internal stability and exploration of the world was put on hold.
It's dizzying to think about how different the world would be if China had become the dominant power in the world. I guess it would make good material for an alternate history novel, and even a Chinapunk aesthetic.
Proust and the time
I guess time is a topic that is hard to avoid when you write a book about economics. Yet, I didn't expect to see Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" mentioned in this book. The book's epigraph is a quote from "Within a Budding Grove" that reads:
"How often have I watched, and longed to imitate when I should be free to live as I chose, a rower who had slipped his oars and lay flat on his back in the bottom of the boat, letting it drift with the current, seeing nothing but the sky gliding slowly by above him, his face aglow with a foretaste of happiness and peace!"
I find it beautiful.
It also mentions that we can derive deep reflexions about time in Proust's writing that can shed light on people's behavior and the economy.
"La mémoire peine à retenir les émotions silencieuses des jours ordinaires. Le génie de Proust dans La recherche du temps perdu est de montrer le combat qu'il faut mener contre soi-même pour dépasser la propension ordinaire à ne retenir que les moments saillants... Le "temps perdu" a le double sens du temps passé qu'on croit avoir oublié et du temps qu'on croit avoir perdu a des choses futiles et qui sont pourtant l'essentiel ..."
Looking a little into it I found this dictionnary that was written by a group of researchers from many disciplines that originated their research on Proust and time.
East India Company, a dystopian past
To be honest, I don't know much about the history of colonization. I know that it was done by European countries, it was atrocious and it still manifest itself on many levels today.
The way I pictured how it happened was a sort of crusade-Napoleon's-style invasion where the European royal armies would go to a country; murder, enslave and oppress its people and steal all the resources they could. Only in a second phase would the private companies come and profit from these crimes.
I only realized reading this book that the common pattern was the other way around: in a first phase the colonizing countries would partner with private companies, and take the whole control in a second phase.
The book illustrates how this innovative predatory capitalistic approach ruined the Indian textile economy:
- First the East India Company forbid India to export its textiles to England, when India was a leader in this category
- When England consolidated its industrial advantage, free-trade was imposed to India
- English textiles flooded the indian markets and destroyed the local craftsmanship
- India had to specialize in domains where it has a competitive advantage: burlap, indigo or opium.
After that, I watched a couple videos and I added this book to my reading list.
Books
The author mentions a few books that I added to my reading list:
- The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
- China in Ten Words by Yu Hua
- The Accursed Share by Georges Bataille
- Les Testaments trahis by Milan Kundera