ABSTRACT
Like most vague titles, the title of this chapter masks (or, for connoisseurs of such things, exposes) an unspecific purpose. Its object is to examine, in a fairly discursive way, a few of the general problems which economic historians encounter when dealing with economic development in the long run. And it is concerned less with what we know (indeed, we probably know relatively little about economic growth in general), than with what we may learn, at a somewhat high level of generality, from our attempts to know. How do economic historians set about visualising ‘the’ process of development? How do they break it down in order to study it? What success can they hope for in their efforts to build up generalisations about it? These are some of the questions which need to be raised in any general discussion about long-run growth. My title is sufficient indication that this paper will not succeed in answering them.
