Book Review | The Wealth and Poverty of Nations

First, to understand the references in the book it is necessary for the reader to go to the Appendix and read up ‘What is a Nation State’. That provides a set of guidelines that can define the how and why of a nation. Once that systemic atlas hangs on your mental wall, you can pinpoint the dangers on the way. As the author points out in conclusion: “How can we build systems of security and prosperity which do not depend solely on the goodwill of nation states?” It is just this complex matter of understanding history, or even creating it.

This is a book of great importance and needs to be read with patience. It is divided into four parts God (France), Money (Britain), Law (United States) and Nature (China), dealing with the different ingredients that cook up the idea of a nation, of a people, of a race.

This somewhat explains the author’s engagement with symbolism. The book is a comprehensive commentary of kingdoms and states in the womb, of symbolism that borrows from religion, of order that prefers profit, and finally governance that identifies with the church or temple. Symbolism settles in the subject’s mind in many different ways, such as the mere 27-year post-death canonising of King Louis IX of France’s showed, that his the new ‘formula’ of “king as servant” had touched base with ease. It is an idea whose imprint has been noticed in India’s modern thoughts as well.

Then, there is money. Money is a part where Britain is a flavour, where it started bland, constrained by its own laws that disallowed innovations of financial institutions and tools, such as the stock market to take root. This happened in The Netherlands instead. While huge amounts of British sovereign wealth stayed stuck in land that the rich members of the Commons apportioned to themselves, making sales problematic, other parts of Europe prospered.

Hence in the New World of America the British realised that the full ownership of land and its transferability allowed the flow of money and commerce. This is another building block of a nation, land being finite, hence an appreciating commodity.

The author lays down these building blocks for us to decide for ourselves both, the opportunities and the frailty of nations. When wealth was discovered under the ground – a la oil of today – fault lines appeared along those. The somewhat egalitarian concept of globalisation as a route to greater good has fallen through these fault lines.

In conclusion the author summarises that the greatest achievements of the modern era have undoubtedly arisen from liberalism. Hence, while a case for globalisation of great ideas is built, the nation state in itself absorbs and/or suppresses any idea of such magnitude.

Take time to go through this deep-dive book. It will be worth your while.

After Nations: The Making and Unmaking of a World Order

Rana Dasgupta

Penguin

pp. 490; Rs 999