our era has been a history of political fragmentation and competition, whereas the history of China has been one of more successful political integration. For most of the period under study, this allowed China to develop a larger market with relatively low taxation and high level of public good production, thanks to a lower intensity of wars and more unrestricted trade as compared to Europe. The markets of Adam Smith develop more easily in larger polities, not among quarrelling ones that prevent the creation and regulation of large markets. Public policies such as responding to financial or natural catastrophes are also easier in large polities. The concentration of people in cities and the differences in relative prices that encouraged the industrial revolution in some European countries and notEngland and former
governor of the Bank of Canada, accepted his present position after
seriously considering the possibility of presenting his candidacy to
lead the federalist Canadian Liberal Party, the party that has done most
in Canada to democratically fight secessionist movements in Quebec in a
positive way, by constructing a well reasoned, federalist alternative. A
few weeks ago, he gave a speech in Scotland where he was clear that the
"independence" sought by the Scottish Nationalist Party (a currency
union with the UK) was incompatible with true fiscal independence.
"The euro area is now beginning to rectify its institutional shortcomings, but further, very significant steps must be taken to expand the sharing of risks and pooling of fiscal resources. In short, a durable, successful currency union requires some ceding of national sovereignty. It is likely that