The early modern great divergence: wages, prices and economic development in Europe and Asia, 1500–18001

2005/11/16 by Stephen Broadberry, Bishnupriya Gupta · 6 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Colonialism, slavery, and trade #Great Divergence #Purchasing power #China #Western europe #Divergence (linguistics) #Productivity #Economics #Goods and services #Purchasing power parity #Economy #Geography #Development economics #International trade #Economic growth #Macroeconomics #Archaeology

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2005.00331.x

openalex publication_date 2005/11/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11

Abstract

SUMMARY Contrary to the claims of Pomeranz, Parthasarathi, and other ‘world historians’, the prosperous parts of Asia between 1500 and 1800 look similar to the stagnating southern, central, and eastern parts of Europe rather than the developing north‐western parts. In the advanced parts of India and China, grain wages were comparable to those in north‐western Europe, but silver wages, which conferred purchasing power over tradable goods and services, were substantially lower. The high silver wages of north‐western Europe were not simply a monetary phenomenon, but reflected high productivity in the tradable sector. The ‘great divergence’ between Europe and Asia was already well underway before 1800.

Citations

• Agricultural productivity and rural incomes in England and the Yangtze Delta, c.1620–c.18201
• Cycles of Silver: Global Economic Unity through the Mid-Eighteenth Century
• The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War
• Growth in Cities
• Industrial Development in Cities
• Mughal India
• The Economy of the Mughal Empire c. 1595: A Statistical Study

Cited by

• Agricultural productivity and rural incomes in England and the Yangtze Delta, c.1620–c.18201
• Poverty or prosperity in northern India? New evidence on real wages, 1590s–1870s†
• ‘Real’ wages? Contractors, workers, and pay in London building trades, 1650–1800
• Globalization and the Great Divergence: terms of trade booms, volatility and the poor periphery, 1782-1913
• The Three Horsemen of Riches: Plague, War, and Urbanization in Early Modern Europe
• Great Divergence [wikipedia]