Comarative economic development

THIS BOOK deals with the impact of industrial revolution on various aspects of the economy and its external relations. In this venture it has made a comparative study of a number of the present day industrialised countries. It has looked into the impact of industrial revolution on population, national product, sectoral composition of the economy, distribution of national income among various factors of production and the sections of working population, changes in the pattern of consumption, savings and capital formation and foreign trade and international flows of capital. It has also examined the characteristics of the econo mies which proceed on the path of industrialisation. The discussion has not been unidirectional. In fact, it has studied the impact of changes in the size and composition of population on the process of industrialisation, the effect of industrialisation on agriculture and that of foreign trade and international flows of capital on the nature of industrialisation.
The second part of the book has closely looked at. the experiences of three countries of the world, namely, Britain where the first industrial revolution began in the second half of the eighteenth century, Japan which was the first non-European and first Asian country to have industrial revolution, and the former Soviet Union which industrialised itself as a result of conscious decision and efforts under the aegis of the state within a very short span of time. The book has brought out the similarities and contrasts by looking at the role of agriculture, foreign trade and state in these three countries in their industrialisation. It has examined the great controversy in the Soviet Union during the 1920s, which goes by the name of industrialisation debate by incorporating new materials, and has looked at the process of collectivisation in the light of materials which have become available since the Gorbachev days.