ABSTRACT
A major characteristic of the world economy was the widespread distribution of poverty. Certainly by standards, and to a large extent also by the standards of that time, all but a few were poor. It is likely that the globalisation of the best technologies and managerial practices will see a continuation of the equalisation of per capita incomes among countries. Thus, economic power will again reflect the distribution of population. Rapid and geographically unbalanced economic growth may be largely a 300 year phenomenon. The world economy will move from a situation of low growth through a period of high growth and back to a situation of low growth. The transfer of technical knowledge and managerial expertise allows developing countries to grow at rates much higher than countries in the More Developed Regions were able to achieve at comparable levels of per capita income.
