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In a world of supercomputers, genetic engineering, and fiber
optics, technological creativity is ever more the key to economic success. But
why are some nations more creative than others, and why do some highly innovative
societies -- such as ancient China, or Britain in the industrial revolution --
pass into stagnation? Beginning with a fascinating, concise
history of technological progress, Mokyr sets the background for his analysis
by tracing the major inventions and innovations that have transformed society
since ancient Greece and Rome. What emerges from this survey is often surprising:
the classical world, for instance, was largely barren of new technology, the relatively
backward society of medieval Europe bristled with inventions, and the period between
the Reformation and the Industrial Revolution was one of slow and unspectacular
progress in technology, despite the tumultuous developments associated with the
Voyages of Discovery and the Scientific Revolution. What
were the causes of technological creativity? Mokyr distinguishes between the relationship
of inventors and their physical environment -- which determined their willingness
to challenge nature -- and the social environment, which determined the openness
to new ideas. He discusses a long list of such factors, showing how they interact
to help or hinder a nation's creativity, and then illustrates them by a number
of detailed studies taken from the history of Europe and China. He examines such
aspects as the role of the state (the Chinese gave up a millenium-wide lead in
shipping to the europeans, for example, when an emperor banned large ocean-going
vessels), the impact of science, as well as religion, politics, and even nutrition.
He questions the importance of such commonly cited factors as the spill-over benefits
of war, the abundance of natural resources, life expectancy, and labor costs.
And he presents startlingly novel explanations of why China lost its dramatic
lead in technology to Europe, why medieval Europe was technologically more creative
than classical antiquity, and why Britain left the rest of the world behind during
the Industrial Revolution only to lose its leadership a century later.
Today, an ever greater number of industrial economies are competing
in the global market, locked in a struggle that revolves around technological
ingenuity. The Lever of Riches, with its keen analysis derived from a sweeping
survey of creativity throughout history, offers telling insight into the question
of how Western economies can maintain, and developing nations can unlock, their
creative potential. Joel Mokyr is Professor of Economics
and History at Northwestern University, and is the author of Why Ireland Starved,
The Economics of the Industrial Revolution, and other books in economic
history. |
