Evolutionary Perspectives in the Research of Economic History

Evolutionary economics, which focuses on qualitative changes in the economic process, is associated with history. This chapter aims to show that evolutionary economists can learn much from economic history and dialogs with researchers in economic history. After a short discussion on the relations between history and economic theory or between historians and economists, we focus on the Smithian view of economic growth, which rests on the interdependence of the division of labor and the market extension. Is this view applicable in the cases of the emergence of regional agglomeration of the traditional silk industry in the premodern age of Japan and in its transition to a modern industry? Furthermore, we attempt to glimpse the contemporary economic history of Japan since the collapse of the “assets bubbles.” The economic history of Japan’s “lost three decades” was a succession of unintended consequences of “path dependency” and the trials and errors of reform politics. The author closes his overview of contemporary economic history by recommending that all of his fellow evolutionary economists reflect on their experiences with the eyes of economists and historians.