The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change, and Economic Growth

2005/06/01 by Daron Acemoğlu, Simon Johnson, James A. Robinson · 22 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Atlantic World #Atlantic slave trade #Colonialism #Colonialism, slavery, and trade #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Development economics #Economic history #Economics #Economy #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Institutional change #International trade #Law #Monarchy #Political science #Politics #Power (physics) #Property rights

paper · doi:10.1257/0002828054201305

openalex publication_date 2005/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02

Abstract

The rise of Western Europe after 1500 is due largely to growth in countries with access to the Atlantic Ocean and with substantial trade with the New World, Africa, and Asia via the Atlantic. This trade and the associated colonialism affected Europe not only directly, but also indirectly by inducing institutional change. Where “initial” political institutions (those established before 1500) placed significant checks on the monarchy, the growth of Atlantic trade strengthened merchant groups by constraining the power of the monarchy, and helped merchants obtain changes in institutions to protect property rights. These changes were central to subsequent economic growth.

Citations

• Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England
• AGRARIAN CLASS STRUCTURE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN PRE-INDUSTRIAL EUROPE
• The Slave Trade and British Capital Formation in the Eighteenth Century: A Comment on the Williams Thesis
• Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World.

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• Atlantic Ocean [wikipedia]
• Great Divergence [wikipedia]