Jeff Frieden

Historical Study A-51, Fall 2000

This course examines the evolution of the world economy since the late nineteenth century. It analyzes how technological change affects economic possibilities, and how socio-political institutions affect the economic choices people make.

The course begins with the fifty years before World War One, in which the world economy was tightly integrated. It then explores the years from World War One through World War Two, during which the world’s economies turned inward. The class ends with the last fifty years, when the global economy gradually became more closely linked.

The purpose of the course is to explain the sources and effects of trends in the international economy. It is intended to provide basic tools with which to understand the evolution of the world’s political economy.

Requirements. The formal requirements for the course are as follows:

• an in-class midterm examination, which counts as 15 percent of the final grade.
• a three-hour final examination, which counts as 30 percent of the final grade.
• two essay assignments, each a paper of approximately 2500 words (7-10 pages) on one of a set of topics. The questions for the assignments will be handed out at the end of class October 25 and December 13, and are due at the beginning of class October 30 and December 18, respectively. Each essay counts as 20 percent of the final grade; substantial penalties will be imposed for late papers.
• five short “commentaries” (of no more than 300 words) discussing one week’s readings. At least two but no more than three commentaries must be completed before the midterm. They are due at the beginning of class on Mondays (unless Monday is a holiday in which case they are due at the beginning of class Wednesday). These essays count toward the section participation grade.
• participation in section, which counts as 15 percent of the final grade.

Readings. Readings will be drawn from the sources listed below. The following three texts are available for purchase at the Coop:

Rondo Cameron, A Concise Economic History of the World, third edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997)

Peter Gourevitch, Politics in Hard Times: Comparative Responses to International Economic Crises (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986)

A.G. Kenwood and A.L. Lougheed, The Growth of the International Economy 1820-2000, fourth edition (New York: Routledge, 1999)

Sections of Jeff Frieden, The World Economy in the Twentieth Century, a draft manuscript, are also required as indicated. These chapters are available in pdf format on the class website.

There are also substantial additional required readings on this reading list. All readings are on reserve in Lamont and Hilles libraries. Most (not all) of the additional required readings are also available in a sourcebook. Several source books will also be placed on reserve. Readings that are available in the sourcebook are indicated in the syllabus with an asterisk (*). The readings not found in the sourcebook are also on reserve. These are indicated in the syllabus with three asterisks (***). We did not include these in the sourcebook because of excessively expensive royalty fees, or difficulties in obtaining copyright permission.

It is also recommended that students purchase the following:

Graham Bannock, R.E. Baxter, and Evan Davis, The Penguin Dictionary of Economics, 6th edition (New York: Penguin, 1999)

Randy Charles Epping, A Beginner’s Guide to the World Economy, 2nd edition (New York: Vintage Books, 1995)

All required and recommended books for this course are also available for purchase at the Harvard Bookstore, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue.

Professor Frieden’s office hours are Tuesdays 10-11:30 AM and 2-3:30 PM. His office is 406B Coolidge Hall, 1737 Cambridge Street. His telephone number is 496-2386, and his email address is jfrieden@harvard.edu. Gabe Aguilera is the head TF. His office is 601 Coolidge Hall, 1737 Cambridge Street. His telephone number is 495-5566, and his email address gaguiler@fas.harvard.edu

Course web site. http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~hsa51/

PART I: INTRODUCTION

September 18 Introduction and Overview

Cameron, pages 3-19

Kenwood and Lougheed, pages 1-5

Gourevitch, pages 17-68

September 20 and 25 Prologue to the late nineteenth century

Cameron, pages 95-190

*Sir Alexander Fleck, “Technology and Its Social Consequences,” In A History of Technology Ed. Charles Singer, et. al. (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1958), pages 814-841

*Natalie McPherson, “The Industrial Revolution Gathers Steam: 1830-1870,” In Machines and Economic Growth: The Implications for Growth Theory of the History of the Industrial Revolution (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994), pages 31-47

*Friedrich Engels, “The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844,” In Industrialization and Industrial Labor in Nineteenth-Century Europe Ed. James J. Sheehan (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1973), pages 13-32

*Elizabeth Bentley, “Factory Conditions, c. 1815,” in Eyewitness to History Ed. John Carey (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987), pages 295-8

PART II: FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION TO WORLD WAR ONE, 1873-1914

September 27 and October 2 Overview: The Golden Age

Cameron, pages 191-295

Kenwood and Lougheed, pages 9-25

Frieden ms. Chapter IA, Overview of 1896-1914

*John Maynard Keynes, “Europe Before the War,” In The Economic Consequences of the Peace (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Howe, 1920), pages 9-26

October 4 and 11 International trade and industry

Kenwood and Lougheed, pages 61-92 and 120-131

Gourevitch, pages 71-123

Frieden ms. Chapter IB, Openness 1896-1914

*Excerpts from Free Trade: The Repeal of the Corn Laws Ed. Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey (England: Thoemmes Press, 1996):

Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, “Introduction,” pages xi-xxvii

Manchester Anti-Corn Law Association, “Anti-Bread-Tax Tracts for the People,” pages 132-3

P.A. Taylor, ”The Anti-Corn-Law League and the Duke of Wellington,” pages 134-8

Archibald Alison, “On the Necessity of Agricultural Protection for the Cultivators of Great Britain,” pages 331-4

October 16 and 18 The international movement of money, capital, and people

Cameron, pages 296-323

Kenwood and Lougheed, pages 26-60, 93-119, and 148-161

*Jeffrey G. Williamson, “Globalization and Inequality, Past and Present,” The World Bank Research Observer, Vol. 12 No. 2 (1997), pages 117-135.

*Ronald Rogowski, Commerce and Coalitions: How Trade Affects Domestic Political Alignments (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), pp. 3-20.

*V.I. Lenin, “Selections from Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism,” In International Political Economy Eds. Jeffry A. Frieden and David A. Lake (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995), pages 110-119

*Elihu Burritt, “The Irish Potato Famine,” in Eyewitness to History Ed. John Carey (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987), pages 320-1

*William H. Harvey, Coin’s Financial School (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963): Richard Hofstader, “Coin’s Financial School and the Mind of ‘Coin’ Harvey” (pages 1-4), and chapter 6 (pages 217-246)

*John A. Fraser and Charles H. SergelI, Sound Money (Chicago: Charles H. Sergel, 1895), pages 7-8, 126-141

October 23, 25, and 30 Divergent patterns of economic development; colonial imperialism

Kenwood and Lougheed, pages 132-147

Frieden ms., Chapter IC, Convergence 1896-1914; Chapter ID, Divergence 1896-1914; Chapter IE, Tensions 1896-1914

*C.B. Schedvin, “Staples and Regions of Pax Britannica,” Economic History Review 43 (1990), pages 533-559

*Anthony G. Hopkins, “The Economic Basis of Imperialism,” in An Economic History of West Africa (London: Longman, 1973), pages 124-166

***A. G. Hopkins, “A Categorisation of Colonial Economies,” In Two Essays on Underdevelopment by A. G. Hopkins (Geneva, Switzerland: International Studies on Contemporary Africa Series – No. 1, 1979), pages 55-62

*Stanley Engerman and Kenneth Sokoloff, “Factor Endowments, Institutions, and Differential Paths of Growth Among New World Economies,” in How Latin America Fell Behind: Essays on the Economic History of Brazil and Mexico, 1800-1914 Ed. Stephen Haber (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997), pages 260-304

*Conrad Schirokauer, “The Intrusion of the West,” in A Brief History of Chinese Civilization (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991), pages 253-276

***FIRST PAPER TOPICS DISTRIBUTED AT END OF CLASS OCTOBER 25,

DUE AT START OF CLASS OCTOBER 30***

PART III: FROM WORLD WAR ONE TO WORLD WAR TWO, 1914-1945

November 1 and 6 Trade, money, and finance: recovery and collapse

Cameron, pages 324-345

Kenwood and Lougheed, pages 165-234

Gourevitch, pages 124-180

Frieden ms. Chapters IIA, Overview 1914-1939; IIB, Advances 1914-1939; IIC, What Went Wrong, 1914-1939

*Barry Eichengreen and Peter Temin, “The Gold Standard and the Great Depression.” (UC Berkeley and MIT) Contemporary European History July 2000. Earlier version aUnpublished manuscript, 1998. Available on the World Wide Web at: http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/eichengr/research.htm

*George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier (London: Martin Secker and Warburg, 1986 [1937]), chapter 2 (pages 18-31)

November 8 and 13 The new economic nationalism – fascism, communism, anti-imperialism

Cameron, pages 346-368

Frieden ms. Chapter IID, Autarkies 1914-1939; IIE, Social Democracies 1914-1939

*Paul Bookbinder, “The German Economy and the Weimar Republic,” in Weimar Germany (London: Manchester University Press, 1996), pages 161-176

***Brian R. Tomlinson, “India and the British Empire, 1880-1935,” Indian Economic and Social History Review 12 No. 4 (1975), pages 337-380

*Hsiao-Tung Fei, “Livelihood” and “The Silk Industry,” in Peasant Life in China: A Field Study of Country Life in the Yangtze Valley (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1939), pages 117-137 and 197-228

*Alec Nove, An Economic History of the USSR (New York: Penguin, 1972), pages 160-223

*John Scott, “Blood, Sweat, and Tears,” and “A Day in Magnitogorsk,” in Behind the Urals (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973 [1942]), pages 3-51

***November 15 In-class midterm examination***

PART IV: FROM WORLD WAR TWO TO THE PRESENT

November 20 Settlement and reconstruction

Kenwood and Lougheed, pages 237-246

Frieden ms. Chapter IIIA, Reconstruction 1939-1973

*Fred Block, “The Marshall Plan,” in The Origins Of International Economic Disorder (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), pages 70-108

November 22 and 27 Trade, money, and finance in the heyday of Bretton Woods, 1950-1973

Cameron pages 369-392

Kenwood and Lougheed, pages 247-316

Frieden ms. Chapter IIIB, Bretton Woods 1939-1973

*Barry Eichengreen and Peter B. Kenen, “Managing the World Economy Under the Bretton Woods System: An Overview,” in Managing the World Economy: Fifty Years After Bretton Woods Ed. Peter Kenen (Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics, 1994), pages 3-37

***Peter Katzenstein, “The Small European States in the International Economy,” in The Antinomies of Interdependence Ed. John G. Ruggie (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983), pages 91-130

November 29 and December 4 Trade, money, and finance since 1973

Cameron, pages 393-403

Gourevitch, pages 181-217

Frieden ms. Chapter IVA, Overview 1973-2000

*Jeffrey Sachs, “International Economics: Unlocking the mysteries of globalization,” Foreign Policy No. 110 (Spring 1998), pages

*Dani Rodrik, “Sense and Nonsense in the Globalization Debate,” Foreign Policy No. 107 (Summer 1997), pages 19-37

*Richard B. Freeman, “Are Your Wages Set in Beijing?” Journal of Economic Perspectives Vol. 9 No. 3 (1995) 15-31

 

December 6 and 11 Decolonization and problems of development

Kenwood and Lougheed, pages 317-333

Frieden ms. Chapter IIIC, Decolonization and development 1939-197

*Brian R. Tomlinson, “Postscript: The Economics of Decolonization,” in The Political Economy of the Raj, 1914-1947 (London: Macmillan, 1979), pages 157-167

*D.K. Fieldhouse, Black Africa 1945-1980: Economic Decolonization and Arrested Development, (London: Unwin Hyman, 1986), pages 3-26

*Eliana Cardoso and Ann Helwege, “From Import Substitution to Trade Liberalization,” in Latin America’s Economy: Diversity, Trends, and Conflicts (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1993), pages 73-107

*Paul Collier, David Dollar, and Nicholas Stern, “Fifty Years of Development,” unpublished manuscript [Available online at http://www.worldbank.org/research/abcde/eu_2000/pdffiles/collier_dollar_stern.pdf]

***Moisés Naím, “Fads and Fashion in Economic Reform: Washington Consensus or Washington Confusion?” Paper presented for the IMF conference on Second Generation Reforms, Washington, D.C. [Available online at  HYPERLINK http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/seminar/1999/reforms/naim.htm
www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/seminar/1999/reforms/naim.htm ]

*Charles Wyplosz, “Globalized Financial Markets and Financial Crises,” unpublished paper, April 1998 [Available online at http://heiwww.unige.ch/~wyplosz/fondad.pdf]

***SECOND PAPER TOPICS DISTRIBUTED AT END OF CLASS DECEMBER 13,

DUE AT START OF CLASS DECEMBER 18***

December 13 and 18 Spread, crisis, and collapse of central planning

Frieden ms. Chapter IIID, Socialism 1939-1973

***Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, The Commanding Heights: The Battle Between Government and the Marketplace that is Remaking the Modern World (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998), pages 262-295

***Jeffrey Sachs and Wing Thye Woo, “China's Transition Experience, Reexamined” Transition, March-April 1996 [Available online at http://www.worldbank.org/html/prddr/trans/m&a96/art1.htm]

*Charles Wyplosz, “Ten Years of Transformation: Macroeconomic Lessons,” unpublished paper, July 1999 [Available online at: http://heiwww.unige.ch/~wyplosz/cw_abcde_final.PDF]

December 20 Conclusion

Kenwood and Lougheed, pages 334-340

Gourevitch, pages 221-240