ReORIENT: Global Economy in the Asian AgeAndre Gunder Frank asks us to ReOrient our views away from Eurocentrism—to see the rise of the West as a mere blip in what was, and is again becoming, an Asia-centered world. In a bold challenge to received historiography and social theory he turns on its head the world according to Marx, Weber, and other theorists, including Polanyi, Rostow, Braudel, and Wallerstein. Frank explains the Rise of the West in world economic and demographic terms that relate it in a single historical sweep to the decline of the East around 1800. European states, he says, used the silver extracted from the American colonies to buy entry into an expanding Asian market that already flourished in the global economy. Resorting to import substitution and export promotion in the world market, they became Newly Industrializing Economies and tipped the global economic balance to the West. That is precisely what East Asia is doing today, Frank points out, to recover its traditional dominance. As a result, the "center" of the world economy is once again moving to the "Middle Kingdom" of China. Anyone interested in Asia, in world systems and world economic and social history, in international relations, and in comparative area studies, will have to take into account Frank's exciting reassessment of our global economic past and future. |
Contents
Introduction to Real World History vs Eurocentric Social Theory I | 1 |
Globalism not Eurocentrism | 8 |
Outline of a Global Economic Perspective | 34 |
2 | 40 |
The Global Trade Carousel 14001800 | 52 |
3 | 92 |
Central Asia | 117 |
Russia and the Baltics | 123 |
5 | 222 |
Simultaneity Is No Coincidence | 228 |
6 | 258 |
the West Rise? | 276 |
Supply and Demand for Technological Change | 283 |
Supplies and Sources of Capital | 294 |
7 | 318 |
Through the Global Looking Glass | 339 |
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Adam Smith Africa agricultural alleged already Americas analysis and/or argued Asian Bengal Braudel bullion capital Central Asia chapter Chaudhuri China Chinese cited colonies commercial commodities competitive continued copper Coromandel cotton cowries cycles cyclical decline Dutch early modern East Asia economic eighteenth century elsewhere Empire especially estimates Eurocentric Europe European evidence expansion export Frank and Gills global economy gold Gujarat Habib historians holistic important increased India Indian Ocean industrial revolution institutions Japan Japanese Kondratieff least major Manila Marx merchants metals million Ming Ming dynasty monetary Moreover Mughal nomic Nonetheless observed Ottoman Ottoman Empire percent period Perlin Persia perspective phase political population growth ports Portuguese regions relations relative rice rise Russia seventeenth century ships silk silver sixteenth century social theory South Southeast Asia structure supply textiles thesis tion tons Wallerstein West Asia Western whole world economy world economy/system world history world market world system worldwide