The Evolution of Economies ─ Money-Bargaining, Economic Change and Industrial Revolution

The Evolution of Economies provides a clear account of how economies evolve under a process of support bargaining and money bargaining. They both allow people to determine their interests and requirements by reference to their present circumstances. This gives the bargaining system a natural evolutionary dynamic, allowing society to evolve from situation to situation.

This book engages with the current body of work in evolutionary economics, but also departs from it in embarking on a systematic examination of its relationship with recorded economic history. At the same time, this book also explores how neoclassical theory came to be accepted as the mainstream theory of the workings of an economy, assessing the achievements of evolutionary economists. A central chapter is devoted to reinterpretation of the industrial revolution in terms of the evolutionary dynamic of money bargaining.

This book is of interest to those who study political economy, history of economic thought and international political economy.

Patrick Spread was educated at Wellington College and Trinity College, Oxford. He has worked extensively in the Pacific, Africa and Asia on economic reform and expansion of international trade. He has published three books and several journal articles.