learned societies, challenges and competitions. There was a tendency to let the
findings of each generation slip into oblivion with limited diffusion, and lack of
replication and testing (Landes, 2006:17). Europe certainly had its similar
moments, when practitioners of medicine revered the ancient learning of Greece,
or philosophers and theologians tried to impose a standard view of the world
through the dictates of the Catholic Church. The difference lay in the evolution
of these views and efforts in Europe (Landes, 1998). The gifted in China had
fewer incentives than their equivalents in the West to acquire knowledge about
the universe and skills in mathematics and science. In China after the Qin unifi-
cation in 221 BCE the state was ruled by bureaucrats. Civil service examinations
were instituted during the Sui dynasty (589–617), and during the Song dynasty
(960–1275) bureaucrats were selected through competitive civil service exami-
nations. Government service was the most honourable and worthwhile occupa-
tion. The basic readings for the civil service examinations were the Confucian
classics with a total of 431,286 characters that took six years to memorize. Other
philosophical, historical and literary works were needed as a basis for writing
poems and essays in the examination. This was not the learning relevant for
modern scientific research (Lin,1995).
Key points
- Western Europe did not have a particularly high (by historical standards)
standard of living around 1750, but it was rising. - By the mid-eighteenth century Europe was only just returning to the
income levels it had achieved in the first century under the rule of the
Roman Empire. - Western Europe in 1750 had a significant lead in per capita incomes over
the rest of the world. - Western Europe probably had a lead as early as 1500.
- In the thousand years to 1750 there were obvious and significant improve-
ments in production, trade and transport technologies in Europe. - The Diamond thesis that the gap that existed in 1500 can be traced back to
11,000 BCE is not convincing. - The Brenner thesis that social and economic change originated in English
agriculture after 1350 is more persuasive. - Some scholars argue that the East created a global economy and global
communications network between 500 and 1500 CE, and also that more
advanced Eastern ideas, institutions and technologies diffused to the West
through these networks. - The debate about whether technological dynamism of Western Europe was
indigenous or imported from ‘the East’ misses the most important point.
Over the long term the origin of innovation is less important than receptive-
ness to ideas, whatever their source, and ability to build on ideas in a cumu-
lative manner.
The Great Divergence since 1750 165