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How long does it take to read Global Economic History?

A Very Short Introduction

Robert C. Allen

Global Economic History by Robert C. Allen takes about 3 hours 7 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 3 hours 7 minutes

A weekend read

First published 2011. 170 pages, about 46,750 words.

7 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 5 hours 12 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 3 hours 7 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 1 hour 57 minutes

The page count is the median across 1 edition, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

Why are some countries rich and others poor? In 1500, global income differences were small, but disparities have grown dramatically since Columbus reached America. In this Very Short Introduction, Robert C. Allen shows how the interplay of geography, globalization, technological change, and economic policy has determined the wealth and poverty of nations. Allen shows how the industrial revolution was Britain's path-breaking response to the challenge of globalization. Western Europe and North America joined Britain to form a club of rich nations, pursuing four policies--creating a national market by abolishing internal tariffs and investing in transportation, erecting an external tariff to protect their fledgling industries from British competition, creating banks to stabilize the currency and mobilize domestic savings for investment, and promoting mass education to prepare people for industrial work. Together these countries pioneered new technologies that have made them ever richer. A few countries--Japan, Soviet Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, and perhaps China--have caught up with the West through creative responses to the technological challenge and with Big Push industrialization that has achieved rapid growth through coordinated investment. -- Book Description.

Subjects: Economic indicators, Economic history, Wirtschaft, Histoire économique, Relations économiques internationales, Pauvreté

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