The wealth and poverty of nations - Essay Example

David Landes has studied the history of economic development and focused on the causes of the divergent destinies and relative prosperity levels ofdifferent national economies (DeLong, 1998). Landes was interested in both the wealth and poverty of nations giving importance to the roots of relative and absolute economic failure and success. Landes’ economic history is overpoweringly Eurocentric. But he does not think that all history is Eurocentric. He also recognized other eras such as Islamocentric which is the rise and spread of Islam.

According to Landes, to understand the wealth and poverty of nations today we must be Eurocentric. Other people in the world should try to understand how the expansionists Europeans have grown very rich. He also stated that relative poverty today is the result of failure on the part of political, religious and mercantile elites to pass the tests of maintaining and regaining independence from and assimilating the technologies demonstrated by the people from Europe (DeLong, 1998). Landes demonstrated that Europe was the center and basis of economic development.

He also pointed out that the reason why Eurasian civilizations had an edge in technological advancement over non-Eurasian is the climate. According to Landes, it is impossible for human beings to live in any numbers in “temperate” climates before the invention of fire, housing, tanning, but that once the technological capability to live where it snows has been gained, the "temperate" climates allowed a higher material standard of living (DeLong, 1998). I am not really convinced about this argument that Landes had presented.

Though, I can say that climate can be one of the factors affecting the developments of an economy, it need not be of great impact as what Landes had pointed out. In our world today, a lot of counties gifted with rich natural resources and great climate are suffering from great economic issues and belonged to the less developed countries. If the climate is of great importance, then those countries such as those in Asia, should belong to the most industrialized and developed countries, but it is not the case.

According to Landes, Chinese had a clear half-millenium as the world’s leader in technological innovation from 500 to 1000 (DeLongtes, 1998). After that, the innovation in China started to boom. However, when China’s pre-industrial population quadrupled, the booming Chinese technological lead turned into a significant technological deficit. Thus the problem in population of the developing country contributed to the shortfall of the Chinese development. China’s power today is increasing.

They have developed at a faster pace this time. But they still have a really big issue about their population. I believe that Landes’ claim about China can still be maintained today. China’s population today constitutes more than 1/5 of that of the world’s population (http://afe.easia.columbia.edu, Issues and Trends in China's Demographic History). Thus, for every 5 persons, 1 of them lives in China. If this population growth problem will not be addressed, China will be more likely to experience the same issues like what Landes had written.

The increasing development of China today may not be enough to support its population in the future considering the pace of the growth. Landes concluded that “the one lesson that emerges is the need to keep trying. No miracles. No perfection. No millennium. No apocalypse. We must cultivate a skeptical faith, avoid dogma, listen and watch well." If I were to rewrite the end of this book, I would write it like Landes did, that we should always keep trying but I wouldn’t avoid having faith. I believe that in the end, we really have to work hard to achieve our goals.

We cannot just lift up everything to our beliefs. A lot of our countries today are experiencing great economic problems, thus we should not stop believing, and we should ourselves make a way to attain what we dream of. Our government should always make sure that they will never stop doing their best to uplift our economy. This will help us improve in the future. We should try until we can get what we aimed for and if the faith is the only way that keeps us trying, then we should keep it as well.

References: DeLong, J. Bradford. Review of David S. Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Are Some So Rich and Others So Poor?, (1998). Web. 23 April 2011 “Issues and Trends in China's Demographic History.” http://afe.easia.columbia.edu. (2009). Web. 23 April 2011