THE BIRTH OF ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS - REJOINDER

In ''The Worth of Nations'' I proposed that nationalism was a major fa ctor in the emergence of the modern, growth-oriented economy. In respo nse to criticisms, I demonstrate here the nationalistic inspiration of seventeenth-century English-or British-economic tracts. Urging a reco nsideration of earlier approaches (such as that of W.W. Rostow) to the problem of why-rather than how-the modern economy emerged, I agree wi th Marx Weber's challenge to the naturalness of our proclivity for con stant economic expansion, while departing from his explanation for it.