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The 10,000-Year Rise of the World Economy: Fully Revised and Updated

Philip Coggan

A revised and updated edition of Philip Coggan's magisterial history of the world economy

'Big and timely' Sunday Times

'A truly amazing story' Financial Times

'A real pleasure' Economist

From the first obsidian blades that traded 9000 years ago to today's hyper-connected global system, the story of the world economy has been one of "more": more goods; more trade; more prosperity. But with the rise of tariffs as a political weapon and the break-up of the post-1945 international order, many of the factors that made the global economy produce "more" are now under threat.

All the more reason to take the long view. In this fully revised and updated edition of the critically-acclaimed More, Philip Coggan shows us how, at every step, our wealth has been created by connections between people.

From medieval cottages to hi-tech hydroponic farms, prehistorical Chinese burial mounds to modern central banks, this is broad-sweep history at its compelling best, and a timely reminder of the power of openness for a more prosperous world.

Publication date: January 21, 2027

£12.99

ISBN: 9781806490110

Imprint: Economist Books

Subject: History & Classics

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More (Ebook)

The 10,000-Year Rise of the World Economy: Fully Revised and Updated

Philip Coggan

A revised and updated edition of Philip Coggan's magisterial history of the world economy

'Big and timely' Sunday Times

'A truly amazing story' Financial Times

'A real pleasure' Economist

Publication date: January 21, 2027

£9.99

ISBN: 9781806490127

ISBN 10 / ASIN: B0GX32LF2J

Imprint: Economist Books

Subject: History & Classics

Reviews for More

'This is economics entertainingly and expertly demystified ... Coggan is one of the best financial journalists of his generation ... This is a grown-up book that is not suitable for adolescent Twitter warriors of the left or right'

James Kirkup Times

'Ambitious in its scope and quite brilliant in its achievement ... I would place this book in the ranks of Yuval Noah Harari's best-selling Sapiens'

John Andrews Project Syndicate

'Big and timely ... Coggan's account of the rise of the world economy is accessible and mercifully free of jargon'

Sunday Times

'More, a lucid and wide-ranging new history of the global economy from Philip Coggan, is a book firmly in the Smithian tradition ... vivid, lively and rich in insight ... a truly amazing story'

Felix Martin FT

'How did humanity transform the world over the last 10,000 years? Philip Coggan provides a comprehensive and lucid account'

Martin Wolf FT books of summer 2020

'Epic'

Tim Harford FT

'It is a real pleasure to read a history that naturally includes the crises but sets them in the context of the immense economic advances over the past ten millennia ... Philip Coggan tells the story with both narrative verve and acute observation ... By the end of the book, More has given the reader a vivid sense of the extraordinary achievements of the interwoven modern world economy, with numerous lively anecdotes. It is quite an accomplishment to find the right length to tell a 10,000-year story while including so much relevant detail.'

Diane Coyle Economist

'Packed with amazing facts ... Occasional brushstrokes of humour add light touches ... given the immensity of the subject, it is a masterpiece of selection and compression.'

Martin Vander Weyer Literary Review

'More takes a vast 10,000 year sweep of economic history and melds it into a compelling story of countries and conflicts, civilisations and civic institutions, stagnations and transformations. All in little more than 300 pages of lucid prose. It is a majestic must-read.'

Andy Haldane Chief Economist at the Bank of England

More is a glorious sweep through economic history. Open any page and Philip Coggan gives us new insights on the global economic system. His new book is an undiluted pleasure.

Elroy Dimson

'Philip Coggan tells his epic story of humankind's economic development with both wisdom and wit. Brilliantly weaving together a sweeping historical narrative with a focus on the "drivers" of development - energy, transportation, government and so on - Coggan has written a book that should be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how our modern day economy came into being.'

Stephen D. King author of Grave New World

'Philip Coggan's More is a monumental work of scholarship that never feels like one while you are reading it. All of human economic history is here distilled, with something you didn't know on every page, and today's apparently terrible economic problems put into a clear context.It should be recommended reading for students, economists, anyone who works in business, and anyone with an interest in how our world came to be the way it is.'

John Authers author of The Fearful Rise of Markets

'More is an extraordinary achievement. How can it be possible to turn 10,000 years of human endeavour into a tale which is at once exciting, coherent and surprisingly optimistic? Philip Coggan has a very rare gift. Economics books usually overwhelm the reader with heavy analysis and too many statistics, or frustrate with oversimplification. Coggan distils a vast expanse of human history - the history of trade and economic advance - into a beautifully light and elegantly written tale, full of surprises, and free of ideology. If you have never read any economics, I can think of no better place to start. If you are a seasoned economist, you will discover there is much to learn. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.'

Eric Lonergan author of Money: The Art of Living

'An engaging and highly accessible narrative about the long historical development of global trade, commerce, and innovation. Philip Coggan writes clearly about how and why it all happened, and gives us cause for optimism in difficult times.'

George Magnus author of Red Flags: Why Xi's China Is in Jeopardy

'a fantastic sweep ... Boris Johnson doesn't have much time on his hands for reading at the moment. But ... I can only hope someone is providing him with the odd precis of this kind of book.'

Merryn Somerset Webb editor-in-chief of MoneyWeek, FT

'Praise for Philip Coggan'

'One of the most respected economics journalists on the planet'

Tim Harford

Philip Coggan

Philip Coggan is a former Economist and Financial Times journalist. In 2009, he was voted Senior Financial Journalist of the Year in the Wincott awards and best communicator in the Business Journalist of the Year Awards. Among his books are The Money MachineThe Economist Guide to Hedge FundsMore: The 10,000-Year Rise of the World Economy and Surviving the Daily Grind.