The Long Duration, The Great Divergence and The Great Convergence: brief comments about the Braudel’s influence on the comprehension of the current world economic system

Abstract

The present article intents to identify some aspects of the Braudel’s thought in the historiography that studies the world economic system. It also points out how Fernand Braudel influenced that researches about the “Great Divergence”. Indeed, it is about a pool of historians that understand the formation of the modern economic system in a global and structural perspective. During these last years, the “California School” has been a base of study of the vertical analyse of the phenomenon of the “Great Divergence”. This process started in early nineteen century and resulted in a continuum gap between Europe and China in terms of economic development after centuries of Chinese leadership. One of the reasons for the begin of this kind of research is related to the Chinese vigorous economic growth since 1980’s, besides the development of others emerging nations, such as Brazil. This global movement was denominated as the “Great Convergence” by the historiography which dialogues with the Californian School. It is possible to see the Braudel’s influence not only in terms of the long duration, but also in the fact that Braudel was one of the pioneers to detect the Chinese importance in the constitution of the world economy in the XVIcentury.