Growth and Interaction in the World Economy: The Roots of Modernity

In this study, Angus Maddison explores the causes of the West's economic growth over the last 2,000 years and contrasts it with the economic history of the rest of the world. Maddison explores the impact of Western conquest on the Americas and analyzes the indigenous and external forces that hindered advance in Asia and Africa. He debunks the notion that the Western ascension originated in the industrial revolution in England in the late eighteenth century. His unique analysis suggests that Western Europe overtook Chinese levels of per-capita income in the fourteenth century, in sharp contrast to the prevailing scholarship asserting that China was ahead of Europe until 1800.

Growth and Interaction in the World Economy provides guidance on the broad contours of development, which complements qualitative analysis that, on its own, cannot clearly identify the timing and scope of economic changes.