sprouts of capitalism

Dear list members,
I have been following the debates ongoing in the "Which Marxism" threads and
appreciate the discussion. I am interested in WS theory and in pursuing a
critique of development generally and of a particular historiographic school
in Korea--internal development theory. The details are complex (and I dont
have them all yet) but one thing I want to argue is against what is called
the "English model" in which domestic or national, rather than imperial or
world systemic factors are seen as accountable for the rise of capitalism
and industrialism. This model seems pretty widespread even today at
historiographic and more lay narrative levels.

1. What I would like to ask is what people think would be good sources for
me to look to to challenge this model. European and world economic history
is not my forte, but I would like to learn.

In Korea, this is a major historiographic school, "internal development
theory" (elaborated in the 70s and still dominant today), that finds the
origins of modernity or the sprouts of capitalism in 18century
Korea--indigenously and prior to the advent of Western or Japanese
colonialism. This places Korea within the process of universal history and
refuted colonialist stagnation theory, and as such was in its day a
progressive historiographic move. But it finally seems to be just a copying
of the English model onto Korean history. The problem is that the English
model is inaccurate, doesn't allow us to get at the contradictions inherent
to the system, and affirms nationalism and development in ways that are
unhealthy, in some sense, arguably.

2. I guess it seems to me that one thing so unorthodox about the WS approach
is its leaving behind some of this rhetoric--that of progress, national
development, and modernization, such that Wallerstein argues capitalism has
resulted in a net decrease in overall standards of living. Aren't I correct
in this understanding--and if so isn't this awfully provocative? How to
substantiate it and where to go afterwards? This relates to the debate in
Korea--I think, in that once we (and many seem to be struggling with this)
discard the internal development model, that was I think built on the
English (or related Japanese) one, where to go from there?

Hope I'm being sufficiently clear.

Any responses or advice for readings or articles would be appreciated in
getting me on track here.
Jim Freda
jfreda@ucla.edu