Page 265 - Encyclopedia Of World History

economic growth, extensive and intensive 615

God has distributed His benefits in such a manner that there is no area on the earth so rich that it
does not lack all sorts of goods. It appears that God did this in order to induce all the subjects of
His Republic to entertain friendly relations with one another. • Jean Bodin (1530–1596)

olution” appears to have occurred in other parts of population growth that increased the labor supply. The
Europe, China, Japan, colonial North America, and per- gradual freeing of people in various places from forced
haps parts of India. Meanwhile, slaves in the New World, labor obligations and restrictions on migration, improve-
particularly on sugar plantations, were being worked as ments in the availability in labor markets of information
hard as any labor force in history. about opportunities elsewhere, and greater opportunities
The slaves had no choice, but why did so many free or for commoners to acquire land all meant it was easier for
semi-free people begin to work much harder? Some of young people to start their own lives and families with-
them had no choice, either: As birth rates rose there were out waiting for their parents to give them land, or a shop,
more mouths to feed, and the availability of more labor- or some other productive asset.The result, frequently, was
ers also tended to drive down workers’ earnings per day; earlier marriage and higher birth rates.At the same time,
but a cultural shift was at work, too. denser population increased the possibilities for special-
With more days of work required just to earn the fam- ization—only a community of a certain size will support
ily’s food, people might have been expected to buy fewer a full-time carpenter or weaver—and set the stage for
nonessentials, or at least not more of them. But instead, intensive growth.
ordinary people in various parts of the world appear to The increased long-distance trade that resulted from
have purchased considerably more clothing, specialty advances in navigation and shipping also fueled growth
and processed foods, household goods and services, etc. during the industrious revolution. Exotic new goods,
in 1800 than in 1500. (Again, the evidence is most mostly from the tropics, proliferated, and they were often
detailed for Western Europe, but it points the same way at least mildly addictive: sugar, cocoa, tea, coffee, and
for various parts of East Asia, North America, and per- tobacco.These fueled the emerging consumerism of peo-
haps elsewhere.) In other words, people worked more ple in Europe, China, and elsewhere, and generally had
hours for the market, not just to get essentials, but to to be obtained through the market: Of the crops listed
acquire various little luxuries: sugar, tobacco, silver jew- above, only tobacco could be grown in the temperate
elry, tableware, etc.This was mostly a matter of extensive zones where the largest and wealthiest collections of con-
growth, but it also relied in part on improvements in tech- sumers were found. Meanwhile, potatoes, corn, and
nology (more efficient shipping that facilitated trade, for other new crops made food production possible in places
instance) and changes in social organization, especially where no known crop had grown before, especially at
greater labor specialization. For instance, many people high elevations. Enormous new fisheries off the North
gave up making their own candles and began buying American coast provided cheap protein. And the knowl-
them instead, while putting the hours saved into making edge of strange new worlds—which was collected above
more of whatever they in turn specialized in (say, cloth) all in Europe—did more than just provide practical new
and selling it. ideas; it also shattered old systems of knowledge, inten-
The resulting gains in efficiency from increased inter- sifying the search for new ways to understand the natu-
dependence, though hard to measure, were considerable. ral world. The new thinking that emerged did not
And once again, extensive growth (more land and labor produce the modern sciences and science-based technolo-
inputs) and intensive growth (social and cultural changes gies until the nineteenth century; but when they did, they
that created more efficient marketplaces with more attrac- transformed almost every branch of economic activity.
tive goods available, perhaps acting as incentives for This “industrious revolution,” however, could not go
people to work harder to get them) were so sufficiently on forever, and it also did not yield vast increases in out-
intertwined that they are hard to separate. In fact, more put per person. While global population doubled from
efficient labor markets may even have helped create the 1500 to 1800, output perhaps tripled, so that output per