According to Patrick O’Brien, Smithian growth is a label which includes the formation and integration of markets for land, labour and capital as well as institutional frameworks for the discovery and diffusion of useful and reliable knowledge. The growth is expected to raise the standard of...

This paper offers one Africanist’s perspective on the question (to paraphrase Patrick O’Brien) of how, where, when and why a sample of states encouraged or restrained economic growth from recurring. The last phrase places the focus where it belongs: the issue in Sub-Saharan economic history...