Berend, Ivan T. --- "Past convergence within Europe: coreÂ…periphery diversity in modern economic development" [2003] ELECD 7; in Tumpel-Gugerell, Gertrude; Mooslechner, Peter (eds), "Economic Convergence and Divergence in Europe" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2003)

Book Title: Economic Convergence and Divergence in Europe

Editor(s): Tumpel-Gugerell, Gertrude; Mooslechner, Peter

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843762416

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Past convergence within Europe: coreÂ…periphery diversity in modern economic development

Author(s): Berend, Ivan T.

Number of pages: 15

Extract:

1. Past convergence within Europe:
core­periphery diversity in modern
economic development
Ivan T. Berend

The existence of diversity among European countries goes back to the early
history of the continent. It was characteristic of the medieval centuries,
when great differences were already apparent between the Christian-feudal
West and the barbarian peripheries and frontier regions. A proper
core­periphery relationship, however, emerged only with the rise of
modern world trade and a modern world system after the discovery of the
Americas. North-western Europe became the core of a rapidly expanding
Atlantic trade system, based on the production of mass consumption
goods, accumulation of capital, and proto-industrialization, which went
hand in hand with the gradual dissolution of feudal ties, the development
of a pluralistic society and the rise of the absolute state. This area conse-
quently became the birthplace of merchant capitalism, and subsequently
the industrial revolution. The peripheries, that is the Mediterranean,
Nordic and Central Eastern European countries, continued to preserve
their traditional structures and institutions and became suppliers of non-
processed agricultural products and raw materials for the core countries.
They became part of the rising capitalist world system but with an inferior
status, mostly subordinated to the West, and in some cases a re-feudalized
social system (Wallerstein 1974; Pach 1994). Most of them were targets of
foreign invasion and occupation, lost their independence and became part
of huge multi-ethnic empires. Thus socioeconomic and political conditions
in the European core on the one hand ...