1  Cover

      2  Dedication

      3  Title Page

      4  Copyright

      5  Preface

      6  1 Why, When, and How Did the World Become Rich? What Is Economic Growth? Measuring the Past What Will You Learn from This Book? What This Book Does Not Do

      7  Part I Theories of How the World Became Rich 2 Did Some Societies Win the Geography Lottery? Geography and Modern Development Mountains, Coasts, and Climate Geography and Transport Infrastructure Geography and Industrialization Chapter Summary 3 Is It All Just Institutions? What Are Institutions? Property Rights The Legal System Political Institutions More Equal Rights for All Institutions and the Commercial Revolution Between the State and the Market: Guilds Parliaments and Limited Government War and State Finances Chapter Summary 4 Did Culture Make Some Rich and Others Poor? What Is Culture and Why Does It Matter? Can Culture Explain the European Take-off? Does Religion Affect Economic Growth? The Protestant Work Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism If Not a Work Ethic, Why Did Protestant Countries Grow Faster? The Reformation and Religion as a Source of Political Legitimacy Is Islam the Cause of Middle Eastern Economic Stagnation? The Long-Term Persistence of Culture The North–South Italy Divide The Persistence of Trust Norms Gender Norms Chapter Summary 5 Fewer Babies? Malthusian Pressures The Black Death Household Formation and the European Marriage Pattern Did the EMP Spur Economic Growth? Reasons for Skepticism Demographic Change and the Transition to Modern Economic Growth Chapter Summary 6 Was It Just a Matter of Colonization and Exploitation? How Did the Colonizers Benefit? The Slave Trades The Resource Grab Some Silver Linings of Colonialism? Public Goods and Education Missionaries Chapter Summary

      8  Part II Why Some Parts of the World Became Rich First, Why Other Parts Followed, and Why Some Are Not There Yet 7 Why Did Northwestern Europe Become Rich First? How Geography Shaped Institutional Development Why Was There No Medieval European Take-off? Divergence within Europe Just before the Take-off Parliaments and the Rise of Limited, Representative Government Chapter Summary 8 Britain’s Industrial Revolution A Consumer Revolution Capitalist Agriculture Do Political Institutions Explain Britain’s Industrialization? Mercantilism and Empire Does the Transatlantic Slave Trade Explain Britain’s Industrialization? Was It Cotton? Was It Market Size? How