The Wealth of Man

by Peter Jay

The distinguished journalist and former British Ambassador to the United States offers an epic history of mankind's quest to invent, trade and make money. Many have told the story of mankind's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1891620673
• ISBN13: 9781891620676
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Complementary readings to Jay's book

There are already some good reviews on this book so I will only suggest reading the following books (whose scope is amazingly global) in addition to Jay's divulgative work: 1) Economy: 1.1 "Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium" by Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O'Rourke; 1.2 and 1.3: "The world economy. A millennial perspective" (2001) plus "The world economy: Historical Statistics" (2003) by Angus Maddison (a combined edition of these two volumes appeared on December 2007); 2) Agrarian cultures: "Pre-industrial societies" by Patricia Crone; 3) Government: "The History of Government" by S.E. Finer; 4) Ideas: "Ideas, a History from Fire to Freud", by Peter Watson; 5) Political Thought: 5.1. and 5.2: "The West and Islam. Religion and Political Thought in World History" plus "A World History of Ancient Political Thought" by Antony Black; 6) Religion: "The Phenomenon of Religion: A Thematic Approach" by Moojan Momen; and 7) War: "War in Human Civilization" by Azar Gat.

IT'S THE ECONOMY...

Peter Jay summarises the aim of this book modestly, and rather disingenuously, at the start of his last chapter as 'written by a layman for laymen'. In fact he is a professional economist of high repute and academic attainment who has earned his crust not in the groves of academe but mainly in the jungles of journalism. The book was written as he also prepared a TV series by the same title, but this is a genuine book and not a script. However the impression he is trying to create is the right one - this is not a treatise but an attempt to explain, in layman's terms, nothing less than the history of humankind from an economic perspective. I seem to sense that the author is more on his home ground when he reaches the modern world starting with Adam Smith, David Hume, Malthus and Ricardo, and going on to the era since their time. However I don't doubt for an instant that he has good academic backing for his early foray into prehistory and anthropology. What I value this book for is the sense it conveys of a firm grasp of the subject-matter and the feeling of rationality about the analysis that we are offered. The tone is urbane and not disputatious - the writing of a gentleman - and viewpoints that Jay finds unconvincing are at least treated with civility. By family tradition his politics are Labour, but while both he and I think of economics as a political subject by its very nature, this is no kind of party political tract or anything resembling one. It would be unjust to pigeonhole Jay's viewpoint in any crude sense, which is why I shall not call it Keynesian. Nevertheless it is not only his detached intellectual analysis but his political values that keep him out of sympathy with the kind of economic aspirations and standards currently fashionable in Washington, where he was once the British ambassador. There are 10 chapters, 9 of them historical or prehistorical and finally his own prognostications. He commits himself in these less firmly than some comment I have read might suggest, and this final chapter reads to me more like a man assessing odds and hedging his bet. He sees how the formidable mind of Keynes was nevertheless the creature of Keynes's background and milieu, and he harks back to Darwin and Adam Smith by way of correctives. Indeed the early sages are never long absent from his narrative, and above all he invokes repeatedly a 3-step sequence of action reaction and outcome in political economics that he calls the waltz motif. I found the later chapters more gripping than any novel, as Jay discusses the industrial revolution, the 19th century in its successive phases, the period up to 1913, WWI and the dreadful Treaty of Versailles, the inter-war years, WWII, the Marshall Plan and the cold war, the collapse of communism and recent developments. The economic perspective, as presented by such a presenter, sometimes sheds new light that is downright startling (in this author's unhistrionic way) as in his commentary on Stalin's change

A Waltz Through Time and Economics

Peter Jay's book is a sprawling review of the economic history of mankind. Mr. Jay's theme is the waltz motif, where an economic advance is made, followed by outsiders and free riders trying to muscle in on the goods, followed in some cases by social and political solutions to the new problems. The waltz motif analysis is usefully applied to numerous eras, including the development of agriculture, the fall of Rome, and World War I. I especially enjoyed the analysis of the economic history of India and China. Mr. Jay uses per capita economic output, GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per head, or real (adjusted for inflation and the like) income per head as his main economic measures. This is a refreshing change from the too-common practice of using straight GDP. Mr. Jay states that due to industrialization, real income per capita has increased twelve-fold since 1780. Fascinating! The problems with Mr. Jay's analysis are mostly those of GDP itself and the other standard economic measures he uses. GDP does not include any correction for the costs of pollution, or for the depletion of natural resources. Industrialization involved an enormous increase in both pollution and resource depletion, as Mr. Jay indicates. I'm convinced that many of the economic gains of industrialization were real. I wonder, though, how much of that twelve-fold increase is due to drawdown of natural capital. I would like to see the same analysis done in terms of ISEW (Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare) or GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator) rather than GDP. Mr. Jay notes that much of the progress in improving quality of life during the era of industrialization came from demographic restraint. Due to various controls, the population did not increase during industrialization nearly as much as it could have. This is an excellent insight, but it is not applied very much to the rest of the book. It would seem quite logical, for instance, that the surge in the population of U.S. working-age adults in the early 1970s contributed to unemployment at that time; but there is nothing about this. In the summing-up chapter at the end, Mr. Jay dismisses concerns about overpopulation by stating that population growth is slowing anyway and population is likely to top out at only 50% more than the present population. This does not strike me as reassuring. If prior eras could limit their population growth so that quality of life improved, why can't we? Mr. Jay says that economic growth can continue indefinitely because knowledge and innovation have no limits. I am not convinced. In my opinion, knowledge and innovation are dependent on a resource base. Mr. Jay mentions that solving the problem of externalities is part of our future challenges. I think that the problem of externalities is central to economic history, including the rise and fall of both ancient and modern empires. Will we be able to solve the externality problem in this waltz step? Overall, a good book with many excellent poin

Homo economicus from 13000BC to the Internet age

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Former British ambassador to the US and BBC commentator Peter Jay has found a gap among books on the origins and prospects of human civlization, which range from the insights of physical anthropology of our species, to economic histories of societies and nations, and to the cautionary messages of evolutionary history and environmental science. Here, the author focusses on the forces of survival and competition which shaped the material history of human civilization, with digressions on particular technical inventions, animal husbandry practices, and social institutions (e.g. double entry book-keeping in 13th century Florence). All of which culminates in his cautious balance sheet of the state of humanity at the brink of the third millenium AD where he reaffirms his stance as a political realist, rejecting the proclamations by other writers of the end of history and the nation state. The finale is also the least novel aspect of the book. Since this book tends to place itself among the white spaces between the several disciplines which broach this subject, it is both subject to the risk of unmet readers' expectations and the prospect of a reader like myself welcoming it as a literate and somewhat original contribution. The sparse but nonetheless effective use of a few statistics complements a prose which is rhytmic and elegant.

A somewhat chilling waltz through economic history

Jay traces key episodes in homo sapiens sapiens creation of wealth, from hunter and gatherer to present times. He sees mankind as basically curious, ingenious and competitive, although political constraints on these characteristics had been frequent. Given half a chance, humans are basically disposed to better their situation if they can. Intriguing is his "waltz motif," that is, a one, two, three sequence has been frequent throughout. When wealth is increased by knowledge or technique improvement so more can be fed or living standards can rise, then, step two, predators immediately gather externally or free riders look for a free lunch internally, leading to step three, a social-political solution that saves the wealth or the new wealth collapses.So government is needed; no rules or safety; no lasting wealth. However, for an economy to survive, you need the four "i's": information, innovation, investment and incentives. If the government prevents free flow of information about preferences and true costs, or stifles innovation, or ties up investment, or throttles incentives, its economic boom will go bust. So government can create a climate supporting the four i's, but needs to do so without imposing on itself insupportable burdens on its fallible shoulders. Jay points out the global economy has not buoyed all ships, and even in developed countries that are thriving, the poor in these countries are doing worse as they are forced to compete in a worldwide labor market.Is there reason for optimism that the world can continue its economic growth? Jay has a chilling comment. For the rich, (us?), to go on their merry way, the rich (we?) will have to provide "...effective political machinery for obtaining the assent and compliance of billions of people to the rules of the game under which they are expected to play and that, however successful, will leave many of them poor and some of them destitute" (P. 310). Otherwise the waltz, 1,2,3, could lead to 3 of a colossal, global failure.The book courageously sloshes through immense economic content, and it is well worth the effort. If you want a better idea of how wealth is created and what supports its continuance, this is a book for you.