Britain and the Great Divergence (Centre for Geopolitics, University of Cambridge)

Zoom webinar registration required: https://bit.ly/37nqVlY

Twenty-two years after the publication of Kenneth Pomeranz’s The Great Divergence, the role of overseas trade in Britain’s industrial revolution is still a subject of considerable debate. In particular, his focus on North America as the source of ‘ghost acres’ that allowed Britain to escape its ecological constraints has come under continued scrutiny. Several historians of the Baltic sea region have highlighted the Baltic’s importance to the emerging British economy, as a market for goods and above all as a provider of the raw materials essential for industrial development.This event brings together three historians of the Baltic to discuss the importance of Baltic trade in global economic history, and particularly its relationship to Britain’s industrial development. They will explore how historians of the Baltic have increasingly looked at the region in a global context and discuss the economic significance of the Baltic as an access point to the Eurasian hinterland.Speakers:

Professor Leos Müller, Stockholm University
Professor Werner Scheltjens, University of Bamberg
Dr Dimitrios Theodoridis, University of Gothenburg

Chair:

Hugo Bromley, University of Cambridge