Course Syllabus
The syllabuses on both this page and the NTU online course information are synchronized.
Course Information
| Item | Content |
| Course title | Economic History (Ⅰ) |
| Semester | 114-2 |
| Designated for | DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS |
| Instructor | KELLY BARTON OLDS |
| Curriculum No. | ECON 3007 |
| Curriculum Id No. | 303 20010 |
| Class | |
| Credit | 3 |
| Full/Half Yr. | Half |
| Required/Elective | Elective |
| Time | Monday 7,8,9(14:20~17:20) |
| Place | 社科202 |
| Remarks | The course is conducted in English。 The course is conducted in English。。A5*:Civil Awareness and Social Analysis area . This course is also categorized as Liberal Education Course . |
Course Syllabus
| Item | Content |
| Course Description | This is the first half of a two-part course, but it can be taken independently. This first semester deals with early economic history and uses this history to consider big ideas . The course begins with a quick look at the agricultural revolution and the rise of early civilizations, and then looks at the world economy during the "axial age" (Warring States and Han China, Greece & Rome, Buddhist India and the Silk Road) and then moves on to the medieval economy (Tang-Song China, Islam, Europe). Then we will consider the "Great Divergence," when Europe took off and became richer than Asia and finish with a look at Mughal & British India, Ming-Qing China and Tokugawa and Meiji Japan. Interspersed in these historical lectures will be lectures and discussion of the big topics. For example, the importance of predation and protection as well as production in explaining growth, the importance of different kinds of freedom, the effect of family structure and culture generally, the effect of scale economies, how economic learning takes place and whether change usually comes from the top down or bottom up. Most classes will consist of a discussion period (or a period to do a project) sandwiched between two lectures. Both readings and lectures will be discussed. Zuvio question-and-answer software will be used to start the discussions. The second semester (which can also be taken independently) looks in more detail at (mainly Asian) post-1900 economic history. |
| Course Objective | I hope students will gain a broad overview of pre-20th-century economic history and gain a broader understanding of how human society operates. They will face some of the big questions involved in economic development, and economic cooperation generally. Students who finish the course will also gain experience writing English-language essays. |
| Course Requirement | No prerequisites. People from all departments have taken this class. There is very little math, but you will see statistics and graphs. It is nice if you have some acquaintance with economic principles, but it is not necessary. |
| Expected weekly study hours before and/or after class | Maybe three hours. You will usually have an hour-long video to watch outside of class. Most weeks, I will assign several papers, but I expect students to use AI to understand the paper's important points. (Feel free to read the papers, if you like!) |
| References | |
| Designated Reading | Tentative "reading" list. There may be a few changes. Week 2 (metallurgy readings) Roberts, BW, CP Thornton and VC Pigott (2009), “Development of Metallurgy in Eurasia,” Antiquity, 83: 1012-1022. Killick, D and T Fenn (2012), “Archaeometallurgy: The Study of Preindustrial Mining and Metallurgy,” Annual Review of Anthropology, 41: 559-575. Week 3 (Mesopotamian commerce readings) Lambert-Karlovsky, CC (2009), “Structure, Agency and Commerce in the Ancient Near East,” Iranica Antiqua, 44: 47-88. Veenhof KR (2010), “Ancient Assur: The City, its Traders, and its Commercial Network,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 53(1/2): 39-82. Week 4 (Sintashta readings) Hanks B and R Doonan (2009), “From Scale to Practice: A New Agenda for the Study of Early Metallurgy on the Eurasian Steppe,” Journal of World Prehistory, 22: 329-356. Chechushkov IV and AV Epimakhov (2018), “Eurasian Steppe Chariots and Social Complexity During the Bronze Age,” Journal of World Prehistory, 31: 435-483. Week 5 (Roman-Indian trade readings) Parker G (2002), “Ex Oriente Luxuria: Indian Commodities and Roman Experience,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 45(1): 40-95. Fitzpatrick MP (2011), “Provincializing Rome: The Indian Ocean Trade Network and Roman Imperialism,” Journal of World History, 22(1): 27-54. Week 8 (Song China readings) Liu WG (2015), “The Making of a Fiscal State in Song China, 960-1279,” Economic History Review, 68(1): 48-78. Pee C de (2010), “Purchase on Power: Imperial Space and Commercial Space in Song-Dynasty Kaifeng,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 53: 149-184. Liu WG (2012), “Song China’s Water Transport Revisited: A Study of the 1077 Tax Data,” Pacific Economic Review 17(1): 57-85. Week 9 Nobel Prize lectures Douglass North's Nobel lecture: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1993/north/lecture/ Joel Mokyr's Nobel lecture: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2025/mokyr/lecture/ Week 10 (Economic Development readings) Spolaore E and R Wacziarg (2013), “How Deep Are the Roots of Economic Development?” Journal of Economic Literature, 51(2): 325-369. Week 11 (Great Divergence readings) Pomeranz K (2002), “Political Economy and Ecology on the Eve of Industrialization: Europe, China, and the Global Conjuncture,” American Historical Review, 107(2): 425-446. Vries PHH (2001), “Are Coal and Colonies Really Crucial? Kenneth Pomeranz and the Great Divergence,” Journal of World History, 12(2): 407-446. Allen RC (2009), “Agricultural Productivity and Rural Incomes in England and the Yangtze Delta, c. 1620-1820,” Economic History Review, 62(3): 525-550. Goldstone, JA (2021), “Dating the Great Divergence,” Journal of Global History, 16(2): 266-285. Broadberry S (2021), “Historical National Accounting and Dating the Great Divergence,” Journal of Global History, 16(2): 286-293. Week 13 (Cotton textile readings) Ray I (2009), “Identifying the Woes of the Cotton Textile Industry in Bengal: Tales of the Nineteenth Century,” Economic History Review, 62(4): 857-892 Zurndorfer HT (2011), “Cotton Textile Manufacture and Marketing in Late Imperial China and the ‘Great Divergence,’” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 54: 701-738. Riello G (2010), “Asian Knowledge and the Development of Calico Printing in Europe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” Journal of Global History, 5: 1-28. Braguinsky S and DA Hounshell (2015), “Spinning Tales about Japanese Cotton Spinning: Saxonhouse (1974) and Lessons from New Data,” Journal of Economic History, 75(2): 364-404. Week 14 (Russia readings) Broadberry S and Korchmina E (2024), “Catching-Up and Falling Behind: Russian Economic Growth 1690s-1880s,” Journal of Economic History, 84(4): 997-1028. Sunderland W (2021), “The Greatest Emancipator: Abolition and Empire in Tsarist Russia,” Journal of Modern History, 93: 566-598. Smith AK (2019), “A Microhistory of the Global Empire of Cotton: Ivanovo, the ‘Russian Manchester,’” Past & Present, 244: 163-193. |
Progress
| Week | Date | Topic |
| Week 01 | 02/23 | 1. Outline of the course 2. An overview of world economic history Video: History & causation |
| Week 02 | 03/02 | 1. Prehistory (agricultural revolution, sedantism, metallurgy, the wheel, boating) 2. Scale economies (and market thickness) Video: Uruk ( the first civilization) |
| Week 03 | 03/09 | 1. Mesopotamia 2. Production, predation, protection Video: The spread of civilization |
| Week 04 | 03/16 | 1. Genes & memes 2. Early Chinese civilization Video: Axial Age overview |
| Week 05 | 03/23 | 1. Phoenicia & Greece 2. The Silk Road Video: Jane Jacob's Two Moralities |
| Week 06 | 03/30 | 1. Rome 2. Effervescences 3. First midterm quiz |
| Week 07 | 04/06 | Vacation |
| Week 08 | 04/13 | 1. Tang China 2. Song China Video: Top-down vs. Bottom-up (or Middle-up?) |
| Week 09 | 04/20 | 1. Medieval Islam 2. Family & women Video: Medieval Europe |
| Week 10 | 04/27 | 1. The Mongols 2. The Black Death 3. Destruction (creative & otherwise) |
| Week 11 | 05/04 | 1. Early globalization & the Americas 2. Freedom, serfdom & slavery Video: Great Divergence overview |
| Week 12 | 05/11 | 1. Great Divergence arguments 2. Second midterm quiz Video: the Industrial Revolution |
| Week 13 | 05/18 | 1. Mughal India 2. The British Raj Video: Imperialism |
| Week 14 | 05/25 | 1. Ming-Qing China 2. Arguing with Toynbee Video: Chinese & Europeans in Southeast Asia |
| Week 15 | 06/01 | 1. Tokugawa Japan 2. Meiji Japan Video: How do economies learn? |
Makeup Class Information
| NO | Date | Start Time | End Time | Location or Method |
Grading
| NO | Item | Pc | Explanations for the conditions |
| 1 | 2 midterm quizzes | 28% | For each quiz, you will have 50 minutes to answer one of two essay questions (First quiz is worth 12 points--second is worth 16 points.) |
| 2 | class (& maybe home) work | 24% | Answering on-line questions during class and perhaps several projects |
| 3 | Final essay test | 48% | You must answer three of five essay questions. Each question is worth 16 points. |
Adjustment methods for students
| Adjustment method | |
| Teaching methods | |
| Assignment submission methods | |
| Exam methods | |
| Others | Negotiated by both teachers and students |
Office Hour
| Remarks | Before or after class is best. Just contact me, and we will find a time! |