Full Description
The book sets out to explore the economic motivations of imperial expansion under capitalism. This undoubtedly is related to two fundamental research questions in economic sciences. First, what factors explain the divergence in living standards across countries under the capitalist economic system? Second, what ensures internal and external stability of the capitalist economic system? The book adopts a unified approach to address these questions. Using the standard growth model it shows that improvements in living standards are dependent on access to raw materials, labour, capital, technology, and perhaps most importantly 'economies of scale'. Empires ensure scale economy through guaranteed access to markets and raw materials. The stability of the system depends on growth and distribution and it is not possible to have one without the other. However, the quest for growth and imperial expansion implies that one empire invariably comes into conflict with another. This is perhaps the most unstable and potentially dangerous characteristic of the capitalist system. Using extensive historical accounts the book shows that this inherent tension can be best managed by acknowledging mutual spheres of influence within the international system along the lines of the 1815 Vienna Congress. This timely publication addresses not only students and scholars of economics, geography, political science, and history, but also general readers interested in a better understanding of economic development, international relations, and the history of global capitalism.
Contents
Capitalism and Elite Feud: A Short Introduction.- PART I: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.- A Unified Theory of Rent, Elite Feuds and Imperial Expansion.- PART II: RENT, ELITE FEUDS AND IMPERIAL EXPANSION IN EARLY MODERN AND MODERN EUROPE.- Atlanticism, the Slave Trade and Westward Expansion of Western Europe.- The Adventures and Misadventures of Expansion in Eastern and Central Europe.- Western European Expansionism in India, China and Indonesia.- Expansionism in the American and Australian Colonies.- Expansionism, Russian Revolution and the Two World Wars.- PART III: THE POST WAR PERIOD.- Cold War Rivalry in a Bipolar World.- Dissolution of the USSR and Russian Decline in the 1990s.- End of History and Exceptionalism: International System after 1991.- The Rise of China, India and Russia: The Building Blocks of a New International System.- PART IV: Going Forward: What to Expect?.- Rivalry, Expansionism and the Future of the International System.- PART V: A SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE.- Long Run Economic Development: A Survey of the Literature.
