2022.07.04要了解西方资本主义的历史，应该读什么书？

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Economist Reads | Economic history
What to read to understand the history of Western capitalism
Our senior economics writer picks three books and two papers
'Battle of Poitiers' (1356), 1830. Also known as 'King John at the Battle of Poitiers'. Engagement during the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) between England and France. On 13 September 1356 the English under Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376) defeated the French and captured their King, Jean le Bon (John the Good) and held him to ransom. From the Musee du Louvre, Paris. (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)
Jul 4th 2022 (Updated Jul 5th 2022)

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This article is part of our Summer reads series. Visit our collection to discover “The Economist reads” guides, guest essays and more seasonal distractions.

It is easy to be swept up in news about the economy, especially these days. In 2020 the world saw the biggest economic contraction since the Great Depression; today we are dealing with the highest inflation since the 1980s. People rarely have time to think about the very biggest questions in economics. Why did the industrial revolution begin in the 18th century—and why in western Europe? Why do so many countries remain poor when some are fabulously rich? And what is work like today compared with the past? All the issues improve your understanding of the news. For the answers, you need to turn to economic history. Here are five resources to help you understand why we are where we are.


The Worldly Philosophers. By Robert Heilbroner. Touchstone; 368 pages; $18.99. Simon & Schuster; £8.99

The best book to read if you are interested in the history of economic ideas. First published in 1953, it covers some of the most consequential early economists, from Adam Smith to Thomas Malthus to Karl Marx, explaining what they thought and why. Was Adam Smith really a free-market fundamentalist? The book is written in a light, conversational style that is hard to beat—giving the reader a proper understanding of Marx’s theory of capitalist collapse, for instance, without getting bogged down in debates over doctrine. And that’s not the only reason it is a better starting point than Joseph Schumpeter’s “History of Economic Analysis”, which is more precise and nuanced about the early economists but also less fun. Heilbroner’s book is short. You can read it in a few hours.

A Culture of Growth. By Joel Mokyr. Princeton University Press; 424 pages; $22.95 and £17.99

This book deals squarely with the question of why Europe was the first region to industrialise. It focuses on institutions—how ideas of free debate and free markets became embedded in everyday life. Mr Mokyr talks a lot about the Royal Society, a learned institution founded in London in 1660, with the motto “nullius in verba”—“take nobody’s word for it”. The Royal Society was the site of furious disagreements between different scientists, who nonetheless recognised that they were working towards a common cause: improving humanity. And why did this happen in Europe? Geography probably played a role. Fractured into lots of states, a firebrand intellectual who incurred the wrath of the authorities could easily move elsewhere. In most other places, free thinkers had few escape routes.


More Summer reads
• How to watch the Tour de France from afar
• What if the Ottoman Empire had not collapsed?
• In praise of mass-market American tacos
• Our Bartleby columnist picks beach reads for business folk
• The long and tangled history of California’s eucalyptus trees

War as an Economic Activity in the “Long” Eighteenth Century. By N.A.M. Rodger. International Journal of Maritime History. XXII, No. 2 (December 2010): 1-18

This is a short journal article, but the message is profound—and deeply underappreciated. It is about the role of technology. To understand the growth of capitalism in the 17th and 18th centuries, you must understand navies. To be a successful navy, you need to have good ships—obviously enough. A country that wanted to rule the waves therefore needed to invest heavily in new technological innovations. These, in turn, spilled over to the rest of the economy. In addition, you had to have an efficient bureaucracy—for instance, to supply ships thousands of miles from home. This encouraged better government. It is no coincidence that countries with the best navies tended to have the most sophisticated economies: the Dutch in the 17th century, the French for part of the 18th century and the British in the 19th.

The Hundred Years’ War, Volumes 1-4. By Jonathan Sumption. University of Pennsylvania Press; 3,320 pages; $170. Faber & Faber; £84

This series is set long before capitalism got going. The Hundred Years’ War, effectively a French civil war which England egged on, started shortly before the Black Death around the 1340s and finished in the mid-15th century. But the book nonetheless does a fantastic job of showing how different governance and politics were before capitalism, and thus what changed from the 18th century onwards. Kings did not care about economic growth, or even know what it was: they wanted glory. They were happy to tax their subjects to oblivion to fund their missions. And they often laid waste to an opponent’s conquered land, rather than using it for productive purposes. If you don’t have the patience for four full volumes—soon to be five—the single best chapter of the entire series is called “Men at arms”, in the fourth volume, which tells you everything you need to know about the economics of the war.

Enclosures, Common Rights, and Women: The Proletarianisation of Families in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries. by Jane Humphries. The Journal of Economic History. Vol. 50, no. 1 (1990): 17-42

Another paper, which nonetheless contains as much insight as an entire book. It focuses on how lifestyle changed as capitalism came about. During early capitalist development, from the 17th to the late 18th centuries, many people worked from home in small-scale manufacturing industries—producing clothes, for instance. But in the Victorian era many moved into large factories. This had an enormous impact on people’s day-to-day lives. For one, it became harder to look after children. It became more difficult to grow food at home, both because people were there less frequently but also because they were now more likely to live in a city. And they had less control over their time: the factory owner would need them there at 6am sharp. The paper shows that capitalism, despite producing miraculous improvements in people’s material wellbeing, has its trade-offs. ■

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Our senior economics writer is the author of his own book on the history of economic thought.


The Classical School: The Turbulent Birth of Economics in Twenty Extraordinary Lives. By Callum Williams. Hachette; 288 pages; $11.99. Profile Books; £20

An intellectual tour of the 20 most significant early economists, from Adam Smith to David Ricardo to Rosa Luxemburg. “A clear, well-written, and useful introduction to the lives and thought of some of the leading classical economists,” according to Tyler Cowen at the “Marginal Revolution” blog.
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经济学家读物｜经济史
要了解西方资本主义的历史，应该读什么书？
我们的资深经济学作家挑选了三本书和两篇论文
普瓦提埃之战》（1356年），1830年。也被称为'约翰王在普瓦提埃战役'。英法百年战争（1337-1453）期间的交战。1356年9月13日，黑王子爱德华（1330-1376）领导的英国人击败了法国人，俘虏了他们的国王让-勒-邦（好约翰），并将其作为赎金。来自巴黎卢浮宫博物馆。(图片：Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)
2022年7月4日 (2022年7月5日更新)


这篇文章是我们夏季读物系列的一部分。请访问我们的收藏，以发现 "经济学人读物 "指南、特邀文章和更多季节性的分心。

人们很容易被有关经济的新闻所淹没，尤其是这些天。2020年，世界上出现了自大萧条以来最大的经济收缩；今天，我们正在处理自1980年代以来最高的通货膨胀。人们很少有时间去思考经济学中非常大的问题。为什么工业革命开始于18世纪--而且是在西欧？为什么有的国家富得流油，而有那么多的国家却依然贫穷？与过去相比，今天的工作是什么样的？所有这些问题都能提高你对新闻的理解。为了找到答案，你需要转向经济史。这里有五个资源可以帮助你了解我们为什么会有这样的情况。


世俗的哲学家们。作者：罗伯特-海尔布罗纳。Touchstone；368页；18.99美元。西蒙与舒斯特；8.99英镑

如果你对经济思想史感兴趣，这是一本最好的书。该书首次出版于1953年，涵盖了一些最有影响的早期经济学家，从亚当-斯密到托马斯-马尔萨斯再到卡尔-马克思，解释了他们的想法和原因。亚当-斯密真的是一个自由市场原教旨主义者吗？这本书以一种轻松、对话式的风格写成，很难让人信服--例如，让读者对马克思的资本主义崩溃理论有一个正确的理解，而不会陷入对学说的争论中。而这并不是它比约瑟夫-熊彼特的《经济分析史》更好的起点的唯一原因，后者对早期经济学家的描述更加精确和细致，但也不那么有趣。海尔布隆纳的书很短。你可以在几个小时内读完它。

增长的文化》。作者：Joel Mokyr。普林斯顿大学出版社；424页；22.95美元和17.99英镑

这本书直截了当地处理了欧洲为什么是第一个工业化地区的问题。它的重点是制度--自由辩论和自由市场的理念如何嵌入到日常生活中。莫克尔先生谈了很多关于皇家学会的事情，这是一个1660年在伦敦成立的学术机构，其座右铭是 "nullius in verba"--"不相信任何人的说法"。皇家学会是不同科学家之间激烈争论的场所，但他们都认识到，他们正在为一个共同的事业而努力：改善人类。为什么这种情况会发生在欧洲呢？地理环境可能起到了一定的作用。欧洲被分割成许多国家，一个引起当局愤怒的火爆知识分子可以很容易地转移到其他地方。在大多数其他地方，自由思想家几乎没有逃跑路线。


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在 "漫长的 "十八世纪，战争是一种经济活动。作者：N.A.M. Rodger。国际海事史杂志。XXII, No. 2 (2010年12月): 1-18

这是一篇短小的期刊文章，但所传达的信息是深刻的，而且是被严重低估的。它是关于技术的作用。要了解17和18世纪资本主义的发展，你必须了解海军。要成为一支成功的海军，你需要有好的船只--显然是这样的。因此，一个想要统治海浪的国家需要大量投资于新的技术革新。这些反过来又会影响到经济的其他部分。此外，你必须有一个高效的官僚机构--例如，为离家千里的船只提供补给。这鼓励了更好的政府。拥有最好的海军的国家往往拥有最先进的经济，这并非巧合：17世纪的荷兰，18世纪部分时间的法国和19世纪的英国。

百年战争》，第1-4卷。作者：乔纳森-萨姆普特。宾夕法尼亚大学出版社；3320页；170美元。Faber & Faber；84英镑

这套丛书的背景是在资本主义发展之前很久。百年战争，实际上是英国怂恿的法国内战，始于1340年代左右的黑死病前不久，结束于15世纪中期。但这本书还是很好地展示了资本主义之前的治理和政治有多么不同，因此从18世纪开始发生了什么变化。国王们并不关心经济增长，甚至不知道它是什么：他们想要的是荣誉。他们乐于向他们的臣民征税，以资助他们的任务。他们经常浪费对手征服的土地，而不是将其用于生产目的。如果你没有耐心看完四卷书--很快就会变成五卷--那么整个系列中最好的一章就是第四卷中的 "军中之人"，它告诉你关于战争经济的一切信息。

圈地、共同权利和妇女。18世纪末和19世纪初的家庭无产阶级化。 作者：Jane Humphries。经济史杂志》。第50卷，第1期（1990年）。17-42

另一篇论文，但它包含的洞察力不亚于一整本书。它侧重于生活方式如何随着资本主义的产生而改变。在早期的资本主义发展中，从17世纪到18世纪末，许多人在家里从事小规模的制造业--例如生产衣服。但在维多利亚时代，许多人搬进了大型工厂。这对人们的日常生活产生了巨大影响。首先，照看孩子变得更加困难。在家种植食物变得更加困难，这是因为人们在家里的频率降低了，也因为他们现在更可能生活在城市里。而且他们对自己的时间控制得更少：工厂主需要他们早上6点准时到场。本文表明，尽管资本主义在人们的物质福利方面产生了奇迹般的改善，但也有其代价。■

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我们的资深经济学作家是他自己的经济思想史书籍的作者。


古典学派。经济学在二十个不平凡的生命中的动荡诞生。作者：Callum Williams。Hachette；288页；11.99美元。简介书；20英镑

从亚当-斯密到大卫-李嘉图再到罗莎-卢森堡，20位最重要的早期经济学家的知识之旅。泰勒-考文在 "边际革命 "博客上说："对一些主要的古典经济学家的生活和思想进行了清晰的、写得很好的、有用的介绍"。
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