The Islamic commercial crisis: Institutional roots of economic underdevelopment in the Middle East


Autoria(s): Kuran, T
Data(s)

01/06/2003

Formato

414 - 446

application/pdf

Identificador

Journal of Economic History, 2003, 63 (2), pp. 414 - 446

0022-0507

http://hdl.handle.net/10161/2599

http://hdl.handle.net/10161/2599

Idioma(s)

en_US

Relação

Journal of Economic History

10.1017/S0022050703001840

Tipo

Journal Article

Resumo

During the second millennium, the Middle East's commerce with Western Europe fell increasingly under European domination. Two factors played critical roles. First, the Islamic inheritance system, by raising the costs of dissolving a partnership following a partner's death, kept Middle Eastern commercial enterprises small and ephemeral. Second, certain European inheritance systems facilitated large and durable partnerships by reducing the likelihood of premature dissolution. The upshot is that European enterprises grew larger than those of the Islamic world. Moreover, while ever larger enterprises propelled further organizational transformations in Europe, persistently small enterprises inhibited economic modernization in the Middle East.