Morris, Ian. 2010. Why The West Rules -- For Now: The Patterns of
History, and What They Reveal About the Future (New York: Farrar,
Straus, and Giroux).

This book offers a detailed comparative history of East and West, with
particular emphasis on their ability to harness energy.

On Mon, Oct 8, 2012 at 7:46 AM, Rob Tye <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Terry,
>
> I am rather out of date in my reading – I wonder if the studies you mention
> make much comment on the great monetary experiments of Eastern states, of
> Wang Mang, Wang an Shih, Sher Shah and Akbar?  Eastern experiments aimed at
> ending various forms of exploitative economic serfdom, and giving ordinary
> citizens access to markets and the cash to spend at them?
>
> Adam Smith does not seem to me to be much of a China enthusiast, but George
> Berkeley surely was ---and it seems to me it was exactly these sort of
> matters, to do with economic freedom for the ordinary citizen, that George
> Berkeley fixes on in his very positive accounts of Chinese productivity.
> The liberalisation of the economy after 1830 in England perhaps owes some
> debt to such Chinese thought?
>
> I notice a paper by Kuroda this year which has begun to delve this neglected
> matter
>
> Anonymous currencies or named debts? Comparison of currencies, local credits
> and units of account between China, Japan and England in the pre-industrial
> era  Akinobu Kuroda,  Socio-Economic Review (2012) 1–24
>
> A second, thought, alongside most favourite books perhaps we should comment,
> (or rather warn!), concerning some least favourite books dealing with
> oriental economic history?
>
> For instance, it seems to me very clear that in 7 AD Wang Mang anticipated
> in a broad way matters of 20th century western monetary policy when he
> confiscated Chinese gold holdings, in order to assist the launch of his fiat
> currency.  Thus it seems to me especially regrettable that Homer Dubs chose
> to explain this act, instead, as one of mere greed!  Just as bad though, was
> Braudel's attempt to suggest to the reader that Sher Shah’s move to monetise
> the Indian economy (c. 1538) was somehow motivated by the discovery of
> Potosi (in c. 1545)………
>
> Rob Tye, York UK



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Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
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