Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: the West's problem with the East
- 1 Rationality in review
- 2 Rationality and ragioneria: the keeping of books and the economic miracle
- 3 Indian trade and economy in the medieval and early colonial periods
- 4 The growth of Indian commerce and industry
- 5 Family and business in the East
- 6 From collective to individual? The historiography of the family in the west
- 7 Labour, production and communication
- 8 Revaluations
- Appendix: early links between East and West
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction: the West's problem with the East
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: the West's problem with the East
- 1 Rationality in review
- 2 Rationality and ragioneria: the keeping of books and the economic miracle
- 3 Indian trade and economy in the medieval and early colonial periods
- 4 The growth of Indian commerce and industry
- 5 Family and business in the East
- 6 From collective to individual? The historiography of the family in the west
- 7 Labour, production and communication
- 8 Revaluations
- Appendix: early links between East and West
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In Samuel Johnson's Rasselas (1759) the poet Imlac tries to explain to Rasselas the state of the world outside the Happy Valley.
In the Near East ‘I conversed with great numbers of the northern and western nations of Europe; the nations which are now in possession of all power and all knowledge, whose armies are irresistible, and whose fleets command the remotest parts of the globe. When I compared these men with natives of our own kingdom and those that surround us, they appeared almost another order of beings. In their countries it is difficult to wish for anything that may not be obtained: a thousand arts, of which we never heard, are continually labouring for their convenience and pleasure; and whatever their own climate had denied them is supplied by their commerce.’
‘By what means’, said the Prince, ‘are the Europeans thus powerful?; or why, since they can so easily visit Asia and Africa for trade or conquest, cannot the Asiatics and Africans invade their coast, plant colonies in their ports, and give laws to their natural princes? The same wind that carries them back would bring us thither.’
‘They are more powerful, sir, than we’, answered Imlac, ‘because they are wiser; knowledge will always predominate over ignorance, as man governs the other animals. By why their knowledge is more than ours, I know not what reason can be given but the unsearchable will of the Supreme Being.’
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The East in the West , pp. 1 - 10Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996
- 1
- Cited by