Scarcity and Frontiers

Edward B. Barbier is the John S. Bugas Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics and Finance, University of Wyoming. He has over twenty-five years' experience as an environmental and resource economist, working mainly on the economics of environment and development issues. He is the author of many books on environmental policy, including Natural Resources and Economic Development (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and, with David Pearce, Blueprint for a Sustainable Economy (2000).

• List of figures; List of tables; List of boxes; Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: scarcity and frontiers; 2. The agricultural transition (from 10,000 BC to 3000 BC); 3. The rise of cities (from 3000 BC to 1000 AD); 4. The emergence of the world economy (from 1000 to 1500); 5. Global frontiers and the rise of Western Europe (from 1500 to 1914); 6. The Atlantic economy triangular trade (from 1500 to 1860); 7. The golden age of resource-based development (from 1870 to 1914); 8. The age of dislocation (from 1914 to 1950); 9. The contemporary era (from 1950 to present); 10. Epilogue: the age of ecological scarcity?; Index.

'In his masterly and timely book, Ed Barbier rescues the resource endowment from its surprisingly passive role in development economics. He details the succession of natural resources which Bagehot's 'conquering swarm' of humanity has used to fuel its expansion. The pointers in the past from which a world of ecological scarcity may learn are fully revealed in this encyclopaedic study.' Eric L. Jones, author of The European Miracle (2003) and Growth Recurring (2000)