State, Economy and the Great Divergence: Great Britain and China, 1680s-1850s

State, Economy and the Great Divergence provides a new analysis of what has become the central debate in global economic history: the 'great divergence' between European and Asian growth. Focusing on early modern China and Western Europe, in particular Great Britain, this book offers a new level of detail on comparative state formation that has wide-reaching implications for European, Eurasian and global history.

Beginning with an overview of the historiography, Peer Vries goes on to extend ...