On December 4, Underwood International College (UIC) Shinhan Distinguished Professor Kenneth Pomeranz lectured in New Millennium Hall as part of the UIC Global Forum. Professor Pomeranz is University Professor of History at the University of Chicago, and his talk was entitled “Late Imperial Legacies: Land, Water, and Long-Run Patterns of Chinese Economic Development.” The lecture attracted a large number of students and faculty members from UIC and Yonsei University, and it was followed by a lively discussion between Professor Pomeranz and audience members. During his two-week stay at Yonsei, Professor Pomeranz also taught a seminar for UIC students.

Professor Pomeranz is perhaps best known for his 2000 monograph The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the World Economy. In this book, he argues that as recently as the 1750s, correlations between Europe and China were very high in terms of life expectancy, consumption, product and factor markets, and the strategies of households. The rise of Europe in the nineteenth century, he claims, stemmed from the fortuitous location of coal, which allowed for growth in energy-intensive industries, and the fact that the Americas provided Europe with a greater source of needed primary products than Asia. At the Global Forum, Professor Pomeranz said:  “Many scholars from the West and China have argued that China failed to enter the system of capitalism because it focused on agricultural and labor-intensive industries. However, this evaluation is misleading, as these practices led to huge economic development, intensified the characteristics of Chinese economy, and built a solid foundation for the future.”