Table of Contents

Points of Divergence : Economy and Trade

Points of divergence related to economic and trade developments throughout history.

Industrialization

Plausibility check: Industrialization without liberalism ?

Plausibility check: Non-industrializing Westernization

Mercantilism or Free Trade for Industrialization ?

Alternate Sites of Industry and the Resources Required

Where would the industrial centres of an independant Confederate States of America be located ?

Challenge: Nuclear energy for developing/rural areas

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.


Measurement Systems and Standards

More countries using Imperial measurements ?

Restrict the Metric System

WI the Metric system was duodecimal ?

Alternative dating systems

Challenge/WI: Two separate Prime Meridians

Challenge: Esperanto as Air Traffic and Aviation Language

The British develop the Intermodel Container between the world wars

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.


Resources and Resource Extraction

Pre-industrial human impact on greenhouse effect and global temperature ?

Spain without an ounce of silver

Ramifications of a sudden decline of the sugar cane industry after the 1740s

The effects of the boll weevil infestation on the agriculture and economy of an independent CSA

WI: Higher oil prices from 1950s

WI: No lead gasoline

No more oil

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.


Infrastructure Projects

Roman Semaphore Lines and Horse Drawn Cars

Earlier American canals

Earliest possible Suez Canal ?

Challenge: Suez Canal built 200 years earlier than in OTL

How early can you feasibly dig a canal at the site of the OTL Suez Canal ?

Large construction projects wank

Alternatives to Heathrow Airport

WI the Atlantropa dams were built ?

A Trans-Atlantic Tunnel ?

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.


Banking, Finance and Monetary Units

The late Roman republic founds the first professional banks

WI Britain doesn't return to the Gold Standard in the 1920s

Plausibility check: How early can we get paper money ?

Paper money in the Ancien Regime lasting

Plausibility check: Early French Central bank ?

Effect on US banks if the Central Powers win WWI ?

ATL offshore tax havens

Accounting PODs and alternate accounting

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.


Challenge: Avoid Black slavery

WI No African Slave trade in the New World

Plausibility check: Earlier artic trade between Russia and Europe ?

WI London held firm on the Stamp Act ?

WI: A Canadian car company (with a POD between 1900 and 1960)

Challenge: No Great Depression

Recovery from the Great Depression without WWII ?

More "Economic Tigers" (with a POD between 1945 and 1975)

More "Economic Tigers"

Challenge: More Economic Miracles in the Third World

WI the British were the world's best project managers ?

Challenge: Prevent the Great Recession

Great Recession PODs ?

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.


New Trade Routes

Challenge: The Chinese Envoy reaches Rome in 97 AD

How hard was trade in the HRE ?

Contact between the Aztecs and the Incas

Challenge: A seafaring culture like the Vikings in southern Chile

WI No African Slave trade in the New World

Plausibility check: Japan and Korea - Attractiveness to Europeans

Plausibility check: Earlier arctic trade between Russia and Europe ?

WI: Earlier Discovery of the North-West Passage

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.


International Economic Clubs

Challenge: Maintain the Mediterranean economic core

Why wasn't EFTA that "successful" ?

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.


Specific Companies

WI: No fast food chains

WI: No McDonalds (1)

WI: No McDonalds (2)

WI the DuMont television network had survived ?

Challenge:Tim Hortons as the no. 1 fast food restaurant in America

Non-American multinational fast-food and similar chains

Challenge: An Asian-themed fast food chain is as big as McDonald's or Burger King

Challenge: Three major present day airliner manufacturers instead of two

Could the jetliner duopoly be avoided ?

More Successful Auto Companies

North American aerospace/defense companies making cars ?

Challenge: Studebaker survives the 1960s

WI: The Delorean Motor Company is successful ?

DeLorean moved to Ford, Chrysler or AMC ?

General Motors alternate history

WI Ford and Chrysler had merged in the 1980s ?

Bain Capital buys Ford in 1987

WI Sony did not buy Columbia Pictures Entertainment ?

WI: Apple goes under in the 1990s

Challenge: Oldsmobile survives

Keep Nokia competitive

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.


Other / Miscellaneous / In need of sorting

American cities that could have been more prominent

Challenge: A "Singapore of the Caribbean"

ASBs reverse standards of living in countries

Challenge: Native Americans "pull an Iwakura"

Challenge: Make Africa the most developed and stable region in the world (with a POD in the 16th century at the earliest)

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.


See Also

Points of Divergence : Agriculture

Points of Divergence : Alternate Colonization

Points of Divergence : Arts, Architecture and Monuments

Points of Divergence : Industrial Revolution

Points of Divergence : Scientific Discoveries and Inventions

Economic Timelines

Transport Timelines


Points of Divergence Main Directory