Preface

The genesis of this book began with another volume, Natural Resources and Economic Development, which was published in 2005 by Cambridge University Press. The purpose of the latter book was to explore a key paradox in the contemporary world economy: why is natural resource exploitation not yielding greater benefits to the poor economies of Africa, Asia and Latin America? To better understand this paradox, I thought that it might be important to contrast the less successful resource-based development of present times with past epochs of economic development in which the exploitation of natural resources clearly played an important, and more successful, role. Thus, in my 2005 book, I included a chapter entitled “Natural resource-based economic development in history.” I published subsequently an article based on this chapter in World Economics.

However, it soon became apparent that a chapter or journal article was not sufficient to explore the contribution of natural resource exploitation in influencing processes of economic development in key eras of world history. Nor would it be possible through any short historical review to shed light on the many parallels between these past epochs and the current era of global economic development and patterns of resource use.