 World development: the ‘Little’ and ‘Great’ divergencesMichael Dunford Chapter 7 in Rethinking Uneven Development, 2026, pp 170-207 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: In order to explain how the world arrived at its present situation, this chapter turns attention to the rise of Western civilisation and the emergence of great disparities in the development of the productive forces and in relative prosperity in the Little and Great Divergences. As Europe emerged from the feudal crisis of seigneurial incomes and the Black Death, a combination of mercantile and financial capitalists and centralised fiscal-military European states embarked on the colonisation of the world. A succession of centres of economic gravity emerged in Europe, with the North Sea area eventually pulling ahead of the rest in a Little Divergence. Discussion of these events draws on quantitative research on the comparative evolutions of wages, wealth, income and economic development. The chapter also outlines the role of primitive accumulation, of commercial capital and of empire and trade with the Global South and East as sources of wealth and resources and as captive markets as a prelude to discussion of the emergence of industrial capitalism, the spread of industrialisation in the course of a succession of industrial revolutions and the Great Divergence. Keywords: Feudal Crisis; Income and Wealth Inequality; Absolutism; Industry and Empire; Little Divergence; Great Divergence (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:24148_8 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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