Periods of progress

Practically all of the world’s economic advances through the 19th century as well as those in science, technology and industry came from the West. At the heart of it was the Industrial Revolution which had its origins in England.

“What had started in a few countries in the English midlands and Scottish Lowlands,” the well-known economic historian, Joel Mokyr tells us, “soon spread to the European continent and to America.” He adds: “Despite the self-inflicted political and economic disasters in the 20th century, the industrialised West recovered miraculously after 1950 and was able to reach living standards that would have been unthinkable in 1914, let alone in 1800.”

Why did such radical transformation happen in Europe and not elsewhere, especially China, is what Mokyr seeks to unravel in his profound, yet vexatiously turbid book, A Culture of Growth: The Origins of The Modern Economy .

Indeed, it is mystifying that a Europe — which for centuries had not tolerated dissent, persecuted people such as Galileo and sent critics like Giordano Bruno and Cardinal Cramer to the stake — could evolve in so short a time thereafter, into an intellectual and economic powerhouse that valued free thought and stood for the material well-being of mankind. Behind this shift, Mokyr tells us, was a radical alteration of cultural values — “beliefs, values and preferences” — in England and the rest of Europe. By focussing on the cultural underpinnings of growth that led to Europe’s transformation, Mokyr is touching on an aspect economic historians have long ignored.

It is Mokyr’s contention that the astonishing transformation brought about by the Enlightenment and followed by the Industrial Revolution, was the outcome of a deep cultural overhaul in Europe through the 16th and 17th centuries — one that saw the emergence of ‘a general morality, that cares about people one does not know’, and a ‘cultural belief in the virtuousness of technology’. Not only did this have economic progress at its heart but it also led to an acceptance, even among the Puritans, that such progress was desirable and had divine sanction as well. This was a clear departure from the earlier view that such progress leading to wealth was ‘somehow sinful or vain.’

The period that led to the European Enlightenment and onward to the industrial revolution was one of intense debate, enquiry, experimentation and free exchange of ideas among a small group of highly respected and influential elite — numbering no more than a few thousands Moykr tells us constituting the ‘Republic of Letters.’ This ‘Republic, ‘transcended the national boundaries of a fragmented Europe. The Enlightenment and Industrial revolution that followed were clearly elitist but also ones which saw a ‘few drag along the many.’

Among the small elite Mokyr singles out, two Englishmen (each gets a chapter) Francis Bacon for ‘encouraging pluralism and diversity of beliefs, with the coexistence of different and often contradictory hypothesises, that had to compete with one another for acceptance by testing and logic,’ and Isaac Newton for the ‘elegance and completeness with which he explained phenomena and regularities that had puzzled people for centuries, which instilled in others confidence about the ability of humans to understand nature.’

Central to the culture that evolved through the 16th and 18th centuries in Europe was a robust belief that hard work, knowledge and intelligence could overcome natures challenges and improve lives of people. It was a world of possibilities, one in which anyone with competence or expertise had a place. In this world, Mokyr tells us, ‘Artisans were an indispensable element in the progress of technology and a complement to radical inventions.’

It was an irreverent system that developed in Europe, one that had no sacred cows. Mokyr cites an instance where the Royal Society commissioned an optician to investigate a contention of Newton and who found him wrong. “That”, Mokyr states in astonishment, “a self-taught former silk weaver would be asked to test a pronouncement of the greatest mathematician of the age, is itself an illustration of the evolution of the unwavering principle of contestability in the 18th century Republic of Letters”.

To contrast the European achievement, Mokyr devotes the concluding chapter to China which at one time was creative, inventive and adventurous. “Why”, Mokyr asks echoing Joseph Needham, whose multi-volume study of Chinese science and technology remains a classic, “did China not have an industrial revolution?” It had everything going for one — a high level of literacy, a ‘land of books,’ hardly any censorship, a sound schooling system and above all a meritocracy which had a long tradition of selecting its public servants through anonymous public examinations.’

So, what let China down? Mokyr does not adequately explain the ‘Great Divergence,’ that happened between the West and China, where the latter failed to replicate the European age of Enlightenment built on the Republic of Letters and which improved the market for ideas, ‘by formalising the institutions of science.’

A Culture of Growth is a book of immense importance for us Indians especially when we are getting comfortable, forever playing victim to the depredations of British imperialism instead of wholeheartedly focusing on beating the West at its game as the Chinese are doing. Truth be told, it was a decadent sub- continent that the British overwhelmed. We had none of the governance systems or imperial organisation, that sustained China over centuries.

If only we reflect a bit, we cannot but admit that it took a William Jones to make us aware of the treasures we held in our ancient texts and, but for John Prinsep, it is very possible we may never have known how great Ashoka really was. And, lest we forget, it was under the British that India and the Himalayas were mapped with great accuracy, and Mortimer Wheeler excavated a great civilisation to our West we knew nothing about till then. For all their faults, we must thank the British for rescuing us from medieval obscurantism and forcibly propelling us into the modern age.

In the period that Mokyr focuses on in his book (1500-1700 CE), a big Empire formed and declined in India without leaving behind a single institution to show for the time it was around. This was unlike Europe which had several trade guilds that set standards and monitored quality of manufacturing as well as the Royal Society in London and its many counterparts in France and elsewhere in the continent that focused on science and technology; most of these survive to this day. This profound work would have been a wonderful read if it wasn’t so dense’ and distractingly academic. Kenneth Clarke’s Civilization and Niall Ferguson’s Civilization: The West and the Rest are works of scholarship too. Both cover much of the ground Mokyr does, and are easy reads. It will be useful to go through either of them before tackling — and it is well worth tackling — A Culture of Growth .

The reviewer is visiting faculty at the Centre for Contemporary Studies, IISc-Bangalore