A N I N T R O D U C T I O N T O N I A L L F E R G U S O N ’ S L E C T U R E

THE SIX KILLER APPS OF PROSPERITY

THE GREAT DIVERGENCE

• The separation in wealth/innovation/etc. between the developing world (Asia, South America & Africa) and the West (Europe, North America & Australia).• Ferguson wants to understand how this

divergence occurred, what caused the divergence, and the future of the world economy now that the gap is closing.

BACKGROUND TO FERGUSON’S HISTORICAL REFERENCES

• Mughal Empire (1526-1857)

BACKGROUND TO FERGUSON’S HISTORICAL REFERENCES

• Ottoman Empire (1299–1923)

BACKGROUND TO FERGUSON’S HISTORICAL REFERENCES

• Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)• First to write the Oxford

Dictionary• Documented behaviors

and tics led historians to diagnose him with Tourette’s Syndrome posthumously

• Famous British philosopher and author

BACKGROUND TO FERGUSON’S HISTORICAL REFERENCES

• Ibrahim Muteferrika• Originally from

Transylvania, a convert to Islam

• An Ottoman diplomat, publisher, courtier, economist, geographer, man of letters, astronomer, historian scholar and theologian.

• First Muslim to run a printing press with moveable Arabic type

“IT’S NOT GEOGRAPHY”

• East Germany/ West Germany• Communism/

Capitalism• Trabant vs.

Mercedes Benz

• North Korea/ South Korea• Communism/

Capitalism

WHAT HAS CREATED THE DIVERGENCE?

• Ferguson says it is a society’s ideas and institutions, not geography, that creates the Great Divergence.• Adam Smith, not

Sean Connery• 1776, publishes

Wealth of Nations

COMPETITION

• Europe• Political units

• China• Uniformity• Imperial civil service

examinations

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

• Europe• Experimental

method• “…gave man control

over nature.”

• The Orient and Arab world• Theocracy

JOHN LOCKE AND PROPERTY RIGHTS

• Influential thinker of the Enlightenment

• Social contract theory• The relation of natural and

legal rights• Theory of value and property• “Argues that the individual

ownership of goods and property is justified by the labor exerted to produce those goods or utilize property to produce goods beneficial to human society.”

• Ferguson’s example of indentured servitude

• Importance of property ownership.

MODERN MEDICINE

• Modern Medicine• Breakthroughs in

curing infectious diseases

• Sorcery

THE CONSUMER SOCIETY

• The Consumer Society• The foundation of

industrial society• “You want people to

buy a lot of clothes.”• “Propels economic

growth, even more than technological innovations.”

• Bare Necessities• Mahatma Ghandi• Leader in India’s

nationalist movement 1915-1947

• Swaraj: self-rule• Sarvodaya: end poverty

through improvements in cottage industry

THE WORK ETHIC

• The Work Ethic• Max Weber• The “Protestant Work

Ethic”

• Leisure Preference• Now the preference

of the West?

THE KILLER APPS CAN BE DOWNLOADED

• The Great Re-convergence• Is the West deleting its own apps?• Does the sequencing of the “download” matter?• Do these killer apps need to occur in a particular order?

• Africa- Libya• Can China do without having property rights?