The paper identifies the cities in Central-Eastern Europe which were often called Manchesters in the past, because of their similar path of development and the concentration on cotton production in the 19th century in the period of the industrial revolution. The significance of the cotton industry is underlined in the growth of the cities. Following Eric Hobsbawm’s thesis, cotton is treated as the textile symbol of the industrial revolution. That is why the cities’ comparison includes the role of geography, institutions and technology, which were conducive for cotton production. We claim that cotton production was decisive for the real “take-off” of these cities. and at the same time it was the institutional factor that conditioned the economic development. The primary measure is population change over more than 100 years in 5 Cottonopolises: Manchester – the original one, Chemnitz, Lodz, Tampere and Ivanovo.
Autorzy pragn ą podziękować za uwagi do pierwotnej wersji artykułu przekazane przez dwóch anonimowych recenzentów. Treści przedstawiane w niniejszym artykule były przedmiotem dyskusji podczas sesji poświęconej ekonomii rozwoju organizowanej przez The Association for Institutional Economics w ramach 58. konferencji The Western Social Science Association w Reno, NV, w kwietniu 2016 r.
Zarys treści: Niniejszy artykuł, na przykładzie analizy gospodarki miasta Łodzi, stanowi kolejny przyczynek w coraz obfi tszej literaturze na temat czynników pobudzających wzrost gospodarczy. Autorzy pokazują, w jaki sposób czynniki geografi czne mogą stymulować bądź hamować rozwój gospodarczy w różnych okresach. W artykule omawiają przyczyny gospodarczej stagnacji miasta przez pierwsze cztery stulecia jego istnienia i następujący po tym jego szybki rozwój. W toku badań ustalili przede wszystkim, że w przypadku Łodzi długofalowy rozwój nie byłby możliwy bez kilku czynników środowi-skowych, które pozwoliły podjąć dobre decyzje i zapewniły miastu stabilność instytucjonalną.
The content outline:The paper contributes to a growing body of literature on factors triggering economic growth by providing an analysis of the case of city of Lodz. We demonstrate how geographical factors can play their roles as incentives or hindrances of economic development in different periods of time. The paper discusses the reasons for the city's economic stagnation for the four fi rst centuries of its existence and the subsequent rapid growth. The main fi nding is that in the case of Lodz, the long-term development would not be possible without a few environmental factors which supported to make good decisions and to impose institutional stabilization of the city.
Economic development in the Polish city of Lodz was a function of both geography and institutions. Neither geographical nor institutional factors, if taken separately, was a sufficient condition for long-term development. Although the economic achievements of Lodz depended on environmental factors throughout the entire period before World War I, dynamic progress there had to await the establishment of a beneficial institutional background—a change from wool to cotton production, the abolition of a custom’s border, and the construction of a railway system—in the nineteenth century.
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