Origins of modern economic system: England or Holland

This paper, following the approach of the Dutch scholars de Vries and vab der Woude, claims that the Netherlands, rather than England (as it is generally assumed), were the first country, which performed the transition from the traditional society to modern one. Identification of criteria distinguishing traditional and modern societies follows the works of W. Rostow, S. Kuznets and other authors who studied the issue. In order to prove the thesis, author compares urbanization level in Holland and in England, as well as degree of commercialization of those economies, and considers the process o... Mehr ...