This course will examine key topics in North American economic development from Colonial Times to the end of the second World War. The topics include migration and settlement, trade and innovation, agricultural development, slavery and its legacy, and the position of North America in the international economy.
Most of the research we will read is quantitative, and written by economists. The course is therefore particularly suited to students with a strong background in economics. You will also need a familiarity with econometrics, or at least a willingness to become familiar with econometrics.
This course is not available to General Course students.
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This course covers international Monetary and Financial History since the mid-18th century. It is a follow-up on EH203, European Financial History 800-1750. The course is designed to introduce students to the key issues around globalised finance and money. It will look into the rise and eventual demise of the Gold Standard, the emergence and occurrence of financial crises, the globalisation and geography of financial markets, and changes in policy responses and regulation over time.
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The economic resurgence of South Asia in the last twenty years has revived interest in the history of the region. It has also led to a fresh look at theories of comparative history. Not long ago, economic historians used to ask why India ‘failed’ as a developing nation. Their answers looked at the legacy of colonialism or the legacy of culture. Today, rapid economic growth in the region renders such questions obsolete. We need to ask instead, what were the legacies of the past that could explain the dramatic growth rates in the region; and does the past explain why growth co-exists with poverty? The course will seek answers to these questions.
The course introduces the basic facts and major debates in the economic history of modern South Asia. It considers the legacies of empires and developmental states, globalizations of the past and the present times, and the role of indigenous institutions and resource endowments.
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The course explores the main aspects China's economic growth in the very long term from c.1000 AD to 1800, It begins with a survey of general models/themes in Chinese economic history, followed by particular issues: the formation, expansion and the function of the Chinese empire; Confucian values and state economic polices; property rights; peasantry and peasant economy; proto-industrialisation; commerce and trade; science and technology; demographic fluctuations; living standards; external shocks and foreign influence; internal rebellions and revolutions; reforms and modernisation.
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The course provides basic awareness of central themes and key methodological and theoretical issues in economic history; introduces students to important analytic tools used by economic historians, with an emphasis on their practical application in economic history research; and examines major ways in which economic historians collect, analyse and interpret evidence. The training is expected to inform dissertation work.
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The course is concerned with how economic historians have used quantitative methods and with how researchers design and structure a research project. It terms of quantitative methods the emphasis is on the applied and practical rather than the theoretical and will range from the use of simple summary descriptive statistics to multiple regression.
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From the eighteenth century, the South Asia region played an important part in international transactions in goods, people, and money. The world economy, in turn, shaped potentials for economic growth in the region. The aim of the course is to impart an understanding of the global factors that shaped economic change in the South Asia region in the 18th through the early-20th century.
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The course examines major issues in international migration over the last 500 years. The course will consider free and coerced migration in the early modern period, the emergence (and eventual decline) of mass migration in the later 19th century, and the rise of "managed" migration in the post World War II period.
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The course is organised on a topic basis, with subjects chosen to illustrate particular theoretical, quantitative or methodological issues. Such topics could include: long run comparative economic growth; human capital issues in economic history; the macroeconomics of the inter-war years; the political economy of trade; industrial economic history; technological change; quantitative approaches to the evolution of markets; the new economic history of institutional change; analysing historical welfare issues.
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The course deals with conditions and paths of economic development in East Asia (excluding Japan) and Southeast Asia in the past centuries. The first part of the course looks at the debate on Asian economic history, endowments available, and institutions technology and economies that evolved independently in Asia to support a large population with reasonable standards of living. The second part of the course examines reasons for the lack of indigenous modern growth in Asia, conditions and timing of miracle growth of the Asian Tigers, ASEAN and Mainland China after World War Two, and impact of such growth of the world economy.
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