ELEPHANT AND THE DRAGON Elephant and the Dragon



Elephant and the Dragon

Introduction

Economic history is the series of corporate and physical processes by which human societies produce the material conditions of human life from the emergence of the human species. The discipline of economic history is the study of this series of agreements and processes, although much of the discipline is the study of the evolution of modern economic growth (Bai 2005). The reason for this is that modern economic growth brought about sustained increases the accumulation of wealth per capita of human societies. Before the modern economic growth, any improvement in productivity led to increased population, not an increase in living standards. Among the institutions conducive to modern economic growth, of greater importance is the modern state.

Discussion

Premodern states are a drag on progress, because they are in favor of the elite, the aristocrats and landowners, giving them income (income from power and land) rather than the return on investment in production. Modern states, representative of the middle classes can implement economic policy in favor of national markets. This leads to an increased standard of living of the population (Cardenas, Ocampo & Thorp 2002). Government policies that help economic growth are investment in infrastructure such as railways and ports, and human capital, such as adult literacy and the spread of primary education for children.

Among the institutions conducive to modern economic growth, of greater importance is the modern state. Premodern states are a drag on progress, because they are in favor of the elite, the aristocrats and landowners, giving them income (income from power and land) rather than the return on investment in production. Modern states, representative of the middle classes can implement economic policy in favor of national markets. This leads to an increased standard of living of the population. Government policies that help economic growth are investment in infrastructure such as railways and ports, and human capital, such as adult literacy and the spread of primary education for children (Clark 2007).

In Asia, ancient civilizations arose in the valleys of Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China. Human capital development was limited to the spread of literacy in written language among the elites. Physical capital development took the form of irrigation for these agrarian societies. In medieval times, the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula led to the development of another civilization that spread westward across North Africa and eastern India and Indonesia. Spread through the Arab warriors and traders. It was a flourishing civilization during the long era of the middle Ages in Europe (Fannin 2008). The Arabs kept alive the knowledge of the ancient world, translated into Arabic. In addition, he translated the knowledge of China and India into Arabic. The Islamic Empire covered an area larger than the Roman Empire. Later, the Ottoman Turkish invaders from Central Asia and later reorganized surprised much of the Middle East. The Ottomans took control of the Arabs, but adopted the religion of ...