This paper offers a historical appraisal of recent developments in the theory
of very long run growth, focusing on two main areas: (1) linkages between wages,
population and human capital and (2) interactions between institutions, markets and
technology. Historians as well as economists have recently begun to break away from
the traditional practice of using different methods to analyse the world before and
after the industrial revolution. However, tensions remain between the theoretical and
historical literatures, particularly over the unit of analysis (the world or particular
countries) and the role of historical contingency
