CHARLES P. KINDLEBERGER, after serving in Central Banking, the military and government from 1936 to 1948, taught economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specializing in international economic and European Economic history. He retired in 1981 as Ford International Professor of Economics, Emeritus. Among his many books are The World Depression, 1929-39 and the Financial History of Western Europe. His most recent work is World Economic Primacy, 1500-1990, published in 1996.