World Economic History (2235.YR.009993.2)

Datos generales

Tipo:	BAS	Curso:	1	Periodo:	S semestre
Créditos ECTS:	6 ECTS

Profesorado:

Grupo	Profesor	Departamento	Idioma
Year 1	Daniel Hywell Nicholls	Derecho	ENG

None

General knowledge of basic economic theory and terminology, as well as global history, is useful though not essential.

Workload is spread between in-class lectures, in-class and on-line participatory activities, and individual study in preparation for lectures and to produce key outputs (essays, mid-term exams).

The subject helps students to understand the relevance of historical economic processes to the current global economy, and how economic theory and practice have developed through time. It also helps students understand the governance implications of issues such as trade, institutions, modes of capital accumulation and development.

The course aims to familiarize students with the major economic shifts and dynamics throughout history. The main focus is on the period from the inception of the Industrial Revolution onwards, but there will also be a brief look at the origins of economic activity and the creation of trading empires in Classical Mediterranean civilizations, as well as feudal systems, in order to appreciate the nature of economic activity in all stages of development. The course will also examine early economic developments in China, the Arab World and India. The emphasis is on being able to interpret the causal processes which have prevailed in each moment, as well as understanding some basic concepts of economic theory and international political economy. The course will also look at themes such as the history of money, economic thought and the company.
Due to the multi-faceted nature of economic development, the course will analyze economic events within the social, political and cultural contexts within which they took place, encouraging students to adopt a broad approach to economic processes both in terms of their causes and consequences.
The objective is that students will gain a clearer understanding of the current economic climate through analyzing the processes which have led to it. The course deals with many moral, societal and political issues related to economic processes, structures and development, and, through an analysis of these, the aim is for students to develop their own positions on how economic processes should be most efficiently and fairly governed. In-class activities, which students can also participate in from home, as well as on-line debates, will allow students to debate and analyse issues, applying the concepts covered by the course, testing their limits and discovering their strengths and explanatory power.

1. Contents 1. From Early Societies to Industry ¿ Social and Economic Revolution ¿ From hunter-gatherers to settled agriculture ¿ Early economic systems ¿ Sumer, Phoenicia, Greece and Rome ¿ Early economic activity in China ¿ Mongol Empire and trade ¿ Arabic trading system ¿ Importance of agriculture ¿ Technology and production ¿ Efficiency gains and specialization ¿ Feudalism and the Carolingian Empire ¿ Hanseatic League, guilds and city state ¿ Proto-industrialisation ¿ Geography, institutions and development 2. Industrial Revolution ¿ Why Britain? ¿ Coal, transport, wages and capital ¿ Science and machinery ¿ Liberalism and parliament ¿ The Companies Act and the limited liability company ¿ Catch-up strategies ¿ Meiji Restoration ¿ North Vs South America 3. Empire ¿ William II and finance ¿ Shipping and conquest ¿ Copying the Dutch ¿ Spices and fabrics ¿ Raw materials and finished goods ¿ Spanish Empire ¿ Chinese tribute system ¿ Opium and Chinese humiliation ¿ Development of finance in England 4. Theoretical Approaches to Trade, Growth, Value and Order ¿ Mercantilism ¿ Marxism ¿ Hayek ¿ Keynes ¿ Liberalism (Classical, Modern and Neo) ¿ Conservatism (Classical and Neo) ¿ Libertarianism 5. A History of Economic Thought: Beyond Smith & Keynes ¿ A look at the theories of lesser-known but influential economists ¿ Plato¿s meritocracy ¿ Aristotle and property ¿ Scholastics ¿ Veblen on leisure and consumption ¿ Rise of marginalism ¿ Marshall and neoclassical economics ¿ Utilitarianism and welfare theory ¿ Pigou and externalities ¿ Clark and consumer sovereignty ¿ Sraffa and monopolistic competition ¿ Satisficing 6. US Capitalism ¿ The role of Protestant sects ¿ Individualism, property and economic dynamism ¿ Locke and Liberalism ¿ Hamilton Vs Jefferson ¿ Mass production and Fordism ¿ Big business and managerial capitalism ¿ Transnational production ¿ Schumpeter and creative destruction ¿ Interfering in Central America ¿ customs duties and militarism 7. Russian Revolution and Communism (1917) ¿ State ownership and planning ¿ Global revolution ¿ Communism¿s successes and failures 8. War, Crisis and Depression ¿ German growth and expansion ¿ Ruling classes ¿ Empires collapse ¿ War guilt and reparations ¿ Hyperinflation ¿ Class conflict and fascism ¿ Wall Street Crash and the New Deal ¿ German, Japanese and Italian expansionism ¿ Japanese economic interests in Manchuria ¿ Revisionism ¿ Beggar-thy-neighbour ¿ Buffer states ¿ World War II ¿ US Growth 9. Global Economy post-1945 ¿ Fall of empires ¿ US hegemony ¿ Open door policy ¿ democracy and free trade ¿ Global economic institutions (IMF, IBRD, GATT) ¿ European economic integration 10. The Cold War as a Battle between Two Systems ¿ Riga Vs Yalta Axioms ¿ Henry Wallace and fair competition ¿ Marshall Plan, Prague and the Deutchmark ¿ Truman Doctrine ¿ Eisenhower and military spending ¿ Kruschev and the space race ¿ Cuba ¿ sugar and missiles ¿ Triangulation, Helsinki and economic cooperation 11. The Rise of the Third World (1950s-60s) ¿ Structuralism and Dependency Theory ¿ Terms of trade ¿ NAM, NIEO and UNCTAD ¿ Import substitution industrialization and Viña del Mar ¿ Neo-colonialism ¿ Alliance for Progress ¿ Rostow¿s Stages of Growth model 12. The Collapse of the Bretton Woods System and the Oil Crisis ¿ Smithsonian agreement ¿ OPEC and oil supply restriction ¿ Stagflation and Keynesianism ¿ Debt crisis ¿ The Chicago Boys in Chile ¿ The lost decade and Third World debt ¿ Structural adjustment in Latin America 13. The End of the Cold War and the End of History ¿ Military spending and Star Wars ¿ The role of Reagan ¿ Gorbachev and new thinking ¿ Perestroika and Glasnost ¿ The Sinatra Doctrine ¿ Introducing capitalism in Russia and Eastern Europe ¿ The only game in town ¿ The Washington Consensus in Latin America ¿ The inherent contradictions of Liberalism ¿ Shock therapy in Eastern Europe ¿ Neo-Gramscianism ¿ Creation of the WTO ¿ The Pink Tide in Latin America ¿ Reaction to the Asian Financial Crisis ¿ Creation of the G20 ¿ 2008 crisis ¿ Polanyi in our times 14. The Rise of China ¿ War and the creation of a strong state ¿ Great Leap Forward ¿ Deng and cats and mice ¿ 18 Farmers ¿ Economic reforms and trade ¿ Entry into the WTO ¿ Trade and growth ¿ Role of the party ¿ Energy security ¿ Response to the crisis and power shift ¿ Japan, Meiji Restoration and Industrialisation ¿ Asian Tigers

The course blends classical lectures with in-class activities. The course instructor will introduce students to themes and frameworks, but students are also expected to carry out preparation activities prior to each session and to apply this during analytical in-class activities. Resources (book chapters, articles, documentaries, podcasts) are listed for each of the themes that make up the course. Students must read/watch/listen to the appropriate resources for each theme and reflect on the questions that have been set by the course instructor. The course materials are based on analysis and interpretation, rather than descriptive facts. As such it is strongly advised that students focus their reading of the materials in terms of the key points listed and questions set for each theme, and that they write synthesized summaries of the key arguments from each text/podcast/video.

The course book is Frieden, J. (2006), Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century, New York. W.W. Norton and Cº. Several chapters of the book are compulsory readings for various themes within the course.
Other reference sources include:

Allen, Robert, C. 2011. Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Arrighi, G. (2008), Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the Twenty-First Century. London: Verso
Cameron, R. (1997), A Concise Economic History of the World: From Paleolithic Times to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Coggan, P. (2020), More: The 10,000-Year Rise of the World Economy. London: Profile Books
Collier, P. (2007), The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. Oxford: OUP
Ferguson, N. (2009), Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power. London: Allen Lane
Greenspan, A. & Wooldridge, A. (2018), Capitalism in America: A History. Penguin
Harvey, D. (2010), The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism. Oxford: OUP
Hobsbawm, E. (1996), The Age of Capital. New York: Vintage Books
Kurz, H. (2013), Economic Thought: A Brief History. New York: Colombia University Press
Martin, F. (2014), Money: The Unauthorised Biography. London: Vintage
Micklethwait, J. & Wooldridge, A. (2005), The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea. London: Phoenix
Milanovic, B. (2019), Capitalism Alone: The Future of the System that Rules the World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Panizza, F. (2009), Contemporary Latin America: Development and Democracy Beyond the Washington Consensus. London: Zed Books
Rodrik, D (2011), The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy. New York: W. W. Norton and Company

Grupo	Profesor	Departamento
Year 1	Daniel Hywell Nicholls	Derecho