ReORIENT: Global Economy in the Asian Age

Andre Gunder Frank asks us to ReOrient our views away from Eurocentrism-to see the rise of the West as a mere blip in what was, and is again becoming, an Asia-centered world. In a bold challenge to received historiography and social theory he turns on its head the world according to Marx, Weber, and other theorists, including Polanyi, Rostow, Braudel, and Wallerstein. Frank explains the Rise of the West in world economic and demographic terms that relate it in a single historical sweep to the decline of the East around 1800. European states, he says, used the silver extracted from the American colonies to buy entry into an expanding Asian market that already flourished in the global economy. Resorting to import substitution and export promotion in the world market, they became Newly Industrializing Economies and tipped the global economic balance to the West. That is precisely what East Asia is doing today, Frank points out, to recover its traditional dominance. As a result, the "center" of the world economy is once again moving to the "Middle Kingdom" of China. Anyone interested in Asia, in world systems and world economic and social history, in international relations, and in comparative area studies, will have to take into account Frank's exciting reassessment of our global economic past and future.

Table of Contents:
PREFACE I Introduction to Real World History vs. Eurocentric Social Theory Holistic Methodology and Objectives Globalism, not Eurocentrism Smith, Marx, and Weber Contemporary Eurocentrism and Its Critics Economic Historians Limitations of Recent Social Theory Outline of a Global Economic Perspective Anticipating and Confronting Resistance and Obstacles 2 The Global Trade Carousel 1400-1800 An Introduction to the World Economy Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century Antecedents The Columbian Exchange and Its Consequences Some Neglected Features in the World Economy World Division of Labor and Balances ofTrade Mapping the Global Economy The Americas Mrica Europe WestAsia The Ottomans Safavid Persia India and the Indian Ocean North India Gujarat and Malabar Coromandel Bengal Southeast Asia Archipellago and Islands Mainland Japan China Population, Production, and Trade China in the World Economy Central Asia Russia and the Baltics Summary of a Sinocentric World Economy 3 Money Went Around the World and Made the World Go Round World Money: Its Production and Exchange Micro- and Macro-Attractions in the Global Casino Dealing and Playing in the Global Casino The Numbers Game Silver Gold Credit How Did the Winners Use Their Money? The Hoarding Thesis Inflation or Production in the Quantity Theory of Money Money Expanded the Frontiers of Settlement and Production In India In China Elsewhere in Asia 4 The Global Economy: Comparisons and Relations Quantities: Population, Production, Productivity, Income, and Trade Population, Production, and Income Productivity and Competitiveness World Trade 1400-1800 Qualities: Science and Technology Eurocentrism Regarding Science and Technology in Asia Guns Ships Printing Textiles Metallurgy, Coal, and Power Transport World Technological Development Mechanisms: Economic and Financial Institutions Comparing and Relating Asian and European Institutions Global Institutional Relations In India In China 5 Horizontally Integrative Macrohistory Simultaneity Is No Coincidence Doing Horizontally Integrative Macrohistory Demographic; Structural Analysis A "Seventeenth-Century Crisis"? The 1640 Silver Crises Kondratieff Analysis The 1762-1790 Kondratieff"B" Phase: Crisis and Recessions A More Horizontally Integrative Macrohistory? 6 Why Did the West Win (Temporarily)? Is There a Long-Cycle Roller Coaster? The Decline of the East Preceded the Rise of the West The Decline in India The Decline Elsewhere in Asia How Did the West Rise? Climbing Up on Asian Shoulders Supply and Demand for Technological Change Supplies and Sources of Capital A Global Economic Demographic Explanation A Demographic Economic Model A High-Level Equilibrium Trap? The Evidence: 1500-1750 The 1750 Inflection Challenging and Reformulating the Explanation The Resulting Transformations in India, China, Europe, and the World In India ln China In Western Europe The Rest of the World Past Conclusions and Future Implications 7 Historiographic Conclusions and Theoretical Implications Historiographic Conclusions: The Eurocentric Emperor Has No Clothes The Asiatic Mode of Production European Exceptionalism A European World-System or a Global Economy? 1500: Continuity or Break? Capitalism? Hegemony? The Rise of the West and the Industrial Revolution Empty Categories and Procrustean Beds Theoretical Implications: Through the Global Looking Glass Holism vs. Partialism Commonality/Similarity vs. Specificity/Differences 3 Continuity vs. Discontinuities Horiwntal Integration vs. Vertical Separation Cycles vs. Linearity Agency vs. Structure Europe in the World Economic Nutshell Jihad vs. McWorld in the Anarchy of the Clash of Civilizations? REFERENCES INDEX

About the Author :
Andre Gunder Frank, of the University of Toronto, has published more than thirty books. Most recently he coedited, with Barry Gills, World System: Five Hundred Years or Five Thousand? (1996).

Review :
"A stimulating and thoughtful book that should be read by all serious students of the modern world system." "Frank justifiably calls this his best book. . . . [He] gives world history new sophistication and new challenges." "This stunning synthesis by a veteran world historian looks sure to land in reading guides, figure in seminars, and be the subject of conferences. It is written with verve and enthusiasm in a conviction of novelty that reaches prophetic fervor." "No scholar can afford to ignore this serious book." This is a provocative book, for it challenges the conventional wisdom in historiography and social theory." "This marvelously ambitious and erudite historical take on the global economy has resonance within multiple contexts." "A giant leap toward applications of world systemic apparatus to historical inquiry and makes significant historiographical and theoretical contributions to the field."