Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction / Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden -- 1. Transferring Technical Knowledge and Innovating in Europe, c.1200 – c.1800 / S.R. Epstein† -- 2. Apprenticeship and Industrialization in India, 1600-1930 / Tirthankar Roy -- 3. Skills, ‘Guilds’, and Development / Kenneth Pomeranz -- 4. Mega-structures of the Middle Ages / Maarten Prak -- 5. The Technology and Teaching of Shipbuilding, 1300-1800 / Richard W. Unger -- 6. Moving Machine-makers / Karel Davids -- 7. Guilds and Apprenticeship in China and Europe / Christine Moll-Murata -- 8. Labour Relations, Efficiency and the Great Divergence / Gijs Kessler and Jan Lucassen -- 9. Explaining the Global Distribution of Book Production before 1800 / Jan Luiten van Zanden -- Bibliography of the Published Works of S.R. Epstein / Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden -- Index / Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden.

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Technology, Skills and the Pre-Modern Economy investigates how technological skills and knowledge were reproduced and disseminated in the advanced agrarian societies of China, India, Russia and Europe in the centuries before the Industrial Revolution. The book offers regional surveys of Europe, China and India, as well as comparative studies of building, porcelain manufacturing, instrument making, printing, and shipbuilding. The authors engage with the on-going debate about the ‘great divergence’ between Asia and Europe, and its possible causes. Technology has so far had a minor role in that debate. This book is bound to change that, through the bold claims made by various contributors. Contributors are: Karel Davids, S.R. Epstein †, Gijs Kessler, Jan Lucassen, Christine Moll-Murata, Patrick O'Brien, Kenneth Pomeranz, Maarten Prak, Tirthankar Roy, Richard Unger, and Jan Luiten van Zanden.