Cliometrics as Economics Imperialism: Across the Watershed

Ben Fine, Ph.D. (1974), London School of Economics, is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and Visiting Professor at Wits School of Governance, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. His most recent books include Material Cultures of Financialisation, co-edited with Kate Bayliss and Mary Robertson (Routledge, 2018); Race, Class and the Post-Apartheid Democratic State, co-edited with John Reynolds and Robert van Niekerk (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2019); and A Guide to the Systems of Provision Approach: Who Gets What, How and Why, with Kate Bayliss (Palgrave, 2021). His Marx’s ‘Capital’ (Pluto, 2016) is now in its sixth edition (with co-author Alfredo Saad Filho). He was founding Chair of the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (iippe.org) until June 2023.

• PrefaceList of Figures and Tables1 Economic History as Economics Imperialism: a Retrospective1 The Personal Background2 Cliometrics across the Watershed, from General Principles3 … To Practice4 Concluding Remarks2 Consumerism and the Industrial RevolutionPostscript as Personal Preamble1 Introduction2 Economic History through Which Looking Glass?3 Is There a Supply and Demand for Industrial Revolution?4 Economic Theory and the Consumerist Approach5 Is Emphasis on Demand and Supply the Answer?6 The Demand for Fashion in Clothes7 Missing Markets8 Production of Clothing9 Persistence of Luxury Goods in Clothing10 Concluding Remarks3 Economies of Scale and a Featherbedding Cartel? A Reconsideration of the Interwar British Coal IndustryPostscript as Personal Preamble1 Introduction2 Neither Economies of Scale …3 … Nor Featherbedding Cartel4 Royalties: the Unobserved Barking Dog4 Coal, Diamonds and Oil: towards a Comparative Theory of Mining?Postscript as Personal Preamblei Introduction2 Minerals and Landed Property3 Cartels and Minerals4 Concluding Remarks5 Reflections on and from the Cliometric RevolutionPostscript as Personal Preamble1 Introduction2 Cliometrics as Economics Imperialism3 Discarding Dissent4 Concluding Remarks6 From Principle of Pricing to Pricing of Principle: Rationality and Irrationality in the Economic History of Douglass NorthPostscript as Personal Preamble1 Introduction2 From New to Newer Economic History3 Shifting Vision of the Historian of the Western World4 From Principle of Pricing to Pricing of Principle5 Concluding Remarks7 Douglass North’s Remaking of Economic History: a Critical AppraisalPostscript as Personal Preamble1 Introduction2 Theoretical Considerations3 Making Economic History4 Theoretical Considerations: a Critique5 North’s Journey from Theory to History: a Critique6 Transaction Costs in History: a Critique7 Concluding Remarks8 From New to Newer Economic HistoryPostscript as Personal Preamble1 Introduction2 New and Improved: from as If Perfect to Imperfect Markets3 Testing the New Product4 Concluding Remarks9 From qwerty to Microsoft and BeyondPostscript as Personal Preamble1 Introduction2 David and the Two Goliaths – Economics and History3 Hayekian Revenge on Path Dependence4 Culture, Institutions, Narrative and All That Jazz5 Crafting the Newer Economic History6 Finance before Financialisation7 Concluding RemarksReferencesIndex