This thorough and compelling book offers a long-run perspective on the European economy from 1500 to the present day, and compares Europe's position of world dominance in the nineteenth century with its vacillating fortunes in the twentieth century. Europe is set specifically within an international context to illustrate how it influenced the rest of the world and how in turn the latter helped to shape the pattern of European development. The authors explain why Europe overtook the formerly advanced Eastern civilizations and how this resulted in the growing inequality among the nations of the world which is such a marked feature in the present day. They then trace the development of the European economy within the context of the international economy and analyse the reasons for its rise to world dominance in the nineteenth century and then its collapse and revival in the twentieth century.Europe in the International Economy 1500 to 2000 will be of interest to students and scholars of economic history and international economics.