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The Last Great Arrakian Dynasty
@cruelsardaukar
Financial stability & developed capital markets are a crazy superpower. America still has this edge today, but it's less visible because it operates less in the interest rate channel and more in the capital-with-balls channel [venture capital etc]
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Zachariah Schwab
@ZachariahSchwab
Replying to @cruelsardaukar and @antonhowes
It was in part funded by them and also included Dutch professionals in the actual implantation. Dutch interest rates were lower than the rest of Europe so dutch merchants would regularly take out loans at 4% and loan that money out at 8% to England.
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Zachariah Schwab
@ZachariahSchwab
Eventually english regulations drove away the Dutch merchants by setting caps on interest rates. They took their money to the rest of Europe and helped develop the Swedish iron industry which England was then dependent on.
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Zachariah Schwab
@ZachariahSchwab
I thought it was quite interesting. You seem to make the case that the Industrial Revolution than usually conceived. I’ve recently had the thesis that what we commonly think is the Industrial Revolution was actually population rather than productivity growth. What do you think?
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David Watson 🥑
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Dr Anton Howes
@antonhowes
Is this the Kremer thesis you’re referring to? I don’t think it works at all unless one zooms allll the way out, at which point I don’t think it tells us much at all
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Zachariah Schwab
@ZachariahSchwab
No it’s not the claim that increased population growth caused the productivity growth. It is that productivity growth preceded population growth and the reason the 1760-1820/30 period is important is that it is when population growth accelerated.
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