Eco435
University of Toronto
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
April Exam, 2012
Eco 435S/Eco 2738S
Duration – 3 hours
No Aids.
Please do all five questions. All questions are equally weighted. 1. In “The Great Divergence”, Ken Pomeranz discusses the “shared” constraints約束; 限制of Europe and the highly developed core areas of China and Japan in the mid-18th century. * development trajectory in (recent) world history, the industrial revolution. * Before about 1800, growth did occur, but it was mainly “extensive”, leading to more people but almost no growth in income per capita. * After about 1800 this changed, and growth became (increasingly) “intensive”, focused on an almost continuous growth of GDP per head. *
What were these shared constraints? * core regions in Asia and Europe had achieved a relatively high standard of living by the 18th century, shortages of land, soil degradation, deforestation, lack of a dependable energy sources (wood and charcoal were rapidly depleted), and other ecological constraints limited growth in per capita incomes * china, Western Europe, and Japan had developed to a relatively high level and began to face constraints on energy and land use * in Europe the land constraint was relieved by imports from its external periphery, which at the same time also became a captive market for its labor intensive manufactures and the re-export of textiles from Asia. Later of course, these peripheries would supply even more land- intensive - and in Europe land-saving! - cheap commodities, especially cotton and wheat and then alos meat, while also absorbing 60 millions of Europe's surplus population. By contrast, the much more internal Chinese periphery was able to pursue an import substation policy from early on, which simultaneously deprived the Chinese manufacturing centers of markets and by stimulating local demand
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
April Exam, 2012
Eco 435S/Eco 2738S
Duration – 3 hours
No Aids.
Please do all five questions. All questions are equally weighted. 1. In “The Great Divergence”, Ken Pomeranz discusses the “shared” constraints約束; 限制of Europe and the highly developed core areas of China and Japan in the mid-18th century. * development trajectory in (recent) world history, the industrial revolution. * Before about 1800, growth did occur, but it was mainly “extensive”, leading to more people but almost no growth in income per capita. * After about 1800 this changed, and growth became (increasingly) “intensive”, focused on an almost continuous growth of GDP per head. *
What were these shared constraints? * core regions in Asia and Europe had achieved a relatively high standard of living by the 18th century, shortages of land, soil degradation, deforestation, lack of a dependable energy sources (wood and charcoal were rapidly depleted), and other ecological constraints limited growth in per capita incomes * china, Western Europe, and Japan had developed to a relatively high level and began to face constraints on energy and land use * in Europe the land constraint was relieved by imports from its external periphery, which at the same time also became a captive market for its labor intensive manufactures and the re-export of textiles from Asia. Later of course, these peripheries would supply even more land- intensive - and in Europe land-saving! - cheap commodities, especially cotton and wheat and then alos meat, while also absorbing 60 millions of Europe's surplus population. By contrast, the much more internal Chinese periphery was able to pursue an import substation policy from early on, which simultaneously deprived the Chinese manufacturing centers of markets and by stimulating local demand