National Profiles of Progress (the series)

A series on how nations transformed from poverty to progress

How nations escaped millennia of poverty in a single generation, and what those transformations reveal about the true causes of long-term economic growth.

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A core theme of this Substack and my book series is explaining how individual nations have been able to suddenly transform from millennia of widespread poverty to self-sustaining long-term economic growth that increased the material standard of living for the masses. Often this transformation took only one generation.

I believe that the best explanation for the origins and causes of this profound transformation is the Five Keys to Progress. But individual case studies of nations that go through this transformation also helps us understand the causes better. That is what this series tries to accomplish. For some nations, I will write just one article, but some are important enough to have their own entire series.

I try to make each article self-standing, but I would recommend reading the articles in the displayed order.

Enjoy reading!

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Table of Contents for the “National Profiles of Progress” series:

1. Overview of nations that experienced transformative economic growth.

2. The Global Spread of Industrialization (theory explaining the order that nations industrialized)

3. Commercial societies invent material progress (rest of series):

   1. City/states of Renaissance Northern Italy (rest of series)

   2. City/States of Medieval Flanders

   3. The Dutch Republic

   4. Pre-industrial England

4. British industrial revolution, creating the first Industrial society.

5. Anglo nations that copied Britain:

   1. United States (rest of the series)

   2. Canada

   3. Australia

6. European nations that copied Britain:

   1. Belgium

   2. Germany

   3. Switzerland (Coming soon! Subscribe for free so you do not miss it)

   4. Sweden

   5. Denmark

   6. France

   7. Italy

7. Progress expands to Asia:

   1. Japan

   2. Hong Kong

   3. South Korea (Coming soon! Subscribe for free so you do not miss it)

   4. Taiwan

   5. Singapore

   6. China

   7. India

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If you enjoyed reading this series of articles, you might also be interested in reading my “From Poverty to Progress” book series: