Why did the North-Sea folk suddenly get so rich, get so much cargo? The answers seems not to be that supply was brought into equilibrium with demand—the curves were moving out at breakneck pace. Reallocation is not the key. Language is, with its inherent creativity. [continues; click title bar above]
We need to explain the astonishing enrichment in bourgeois countries from 1800 to the present, such as Norway’s move from $3 a day in 1800 to $137 in 2006. But the explanation cannot be economic. If it were so — trade, investment, incentives — it would have happened earlier, or in other places. Economics determines how the tide of growth expressed itself down this inlet or beside that quay. Good. But the tide itself had “rhetorical” causes. [continues; click title bar above]
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Deirdre N. McCloskey is Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago;
and Professor of Economic History, Gothenburg University, Sweden
Susan B. MacDonald, Editor
www.deirdremccloskey.org - website designed & built by susan b. macdonald - print date: Monday, 21 May 2012 - statcounter
