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23 - The economic history of the Pacific

from Part IV - World regions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
Lionel Frost
Edited by
J. R. McNeill  and
Kenneth Pomeranz
J. R. McNeill
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Kenneth Pomeranz
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Summary

In the three centuries after Vasco da Gama made the first direct voyage from Europe to India in 1499, the value of world trade grew by 1 per cent per annum. This chapter focuses on demand and supply shifts and the removal of obstructions to trade in three countries: China, Japan and the USA. Japanese commercial and trading activity, agricultural productivity and levels of nutrition and life expectancy were comparable with that of Europe. Americans at first tended to see East Asia through European eyes, lying at 'the eastern extremity of the globe' as a Boston merchant put it. Asian markets took increasing quantities of Japanese-manufactured consumer goods in exchange for agricultural products. During the Cold War Japan continued to focus on labour-intensive industries that were efficient due to a high-quality workforce and economy of resource use. The growth of trade in the Pacific was not a benign or frictionless process.

Keywords

legal rulesinternational lawlegal positivismcustomary lawPeace of Westphaliamultilateral treatiesmodern state system
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 611 - 631
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

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