![]() ![]() ![]() Mann's account of the wilful blunders of China's rulers down the ages helps to explain recurrent disasters. The book's extensive discussions of Chinese agriculture and manufacture are a strong feature even where they don't quite convince. He makes a strong case for the role of the sweet potato and of the common-or-garden potato in helping Europe and China to mitigate, if not avoid, the "Malthusian trap" of overpopulation and famine. He does not supply a very detailed account of the "great dying" of the native peoples, but instead dwells on less well-known antecedents and consequences of Columbus's voyage in 1493. Chapters of this story have been told before by Fernand Braudel, Pierre Vilar, William McNeill and others, but Mann can report new findings. Mann avoids Ferguson's trademark triumphalism by giving an often critical account of his central topic – namely, the free and forced migration of peoples, plants, quadrupeds and parasites in the so-called "Columbian Exchange" inaugurated by the Spanish conquest of the Americas. ![]() He also pays detailed attention to a triumph of free trade on which Ferguson declines to dwell, the Atlantic slave trade – a "killer app" if ever there was one. He could have added that this was because on-the-spot company officials robbed their shareholders in a very modern way. While over-pitching the "success" of colonial companies – and failing to note that "limited liability" was the key corporate innovation – Mann quickly concedes their role was a chequered one. ![]()
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