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This paper presents estimates of regional GDP per capita for certain benchmark years during the first half of the twentieth century using the method proposed by Geary and Stark. After testing the robustness of the Geary and Stark methodology for the Belgian situation, these estimates are linked to the official regional GDP figures, available since 1955. so that we can cover the whole of the twentieth century. Next we test the suggestion put forward by many historians of a contrast between a 'poor Flanders' and a relatively 'prosperous Wallonia' around 1900. For the remainder of the analysis Belgium's nine provinces are used as a geographical unit to take a broader view than just the Flanders/Wallonia controversy. The analysis shows a dramatic reversal of fortune between the northern and southern provinces. We explain the main causes of this process and assess the effect of state policies on regional development. Finally, the paper considers whether the twentieth century witnessed a process of convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

George Clason's self-help essays on achieving financial independence became accepted household wisdom to millions of Americans between 1925 and 1950. Less well known is Clason's legacy in building the largest commercial map company west of Chicago between 1903 and 1931. In his earlier life as a Denver-based map publisher and booster of western economic development, Clason produced millions of road maps, state maps, city maps, promotional circulars and maps for mining companies, land companies, and state and local governments. This paper explores how Clason's earlier career as a cartographer and map publisher reflected the same economic principles he made nationally famous in his later essays about saving money and building capital. I suggest that Clason's maps successfully blended multiple and distinctive genres of commercial mapping, forming a powerful cartographic narrative focused on promoting development in the West that reflected his own ideology oriented around a belief in progress, high modernism, and the merits of individual effort within a largely capitalistic economic system. I examine the strategic partnerships and business relationships Clason forged with private companies and state institutions and how textual and visual material within Clason's maps communicated enduring ideas about the West's economic potential and regional character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting a critical perspective on the industrial district concept, this paper explores the relationship between identity and entrepreneurship in the context of regional economic development in the North Staffordshire Potteries in the later nineteenth century. Contra to the model of the ‘ideal-typical’ industrial district, both business networks and any collective ethos of economic exchange were fragile in the Potteries. In this environment, entrepreneurship became a key issue. In particular, sections of the industry attempted to redefine the scope and practice of entrepreneurship in the local context, arguing that the entry into the industry of ‘illegitimate’ small firms was damaging the trade. The issue of regional representativeness was central to the process of redefining entrepreneurship. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]