THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLDTHE WEALTH AND

POVERTY OF NATIONS

LECTURE 1 – THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: ORIGINS

The importance of the industrial revolution

From Manpower to Machine Power/technology

The importance of the industrial revolution

Sustained economic growth

Industrial revolution in History

• Rostow: Lessons from this industrial history for the economic growth of the rest of the world

• Deane and Cole, David Landes, Eric Hobsbawm: Saw the Industrial Revolution as a story of modernization

• Global History: Seeing the Industrial Revolution in a Global perspective

Was the Industrial Revolution a Revolution?

Definition

• Industrial Revolution. The term Industrial Revolution is normally reserved for a set of events that took place in Britain roughly from 1760 to 1830. The historical events in question consisted of a set of technological, economic, and social changes that in the long run revolutionized not just the British economy but that of the rest of western Europe, North America, and eventually much of the rest of the world. (Mokyr)

Revolution or not?• Short jump or gradual process of acceleration?

• Major improvements concentrated or diffused process influencing many sectors?

• Foundations found in nationally distinctive economic, political, legal, social or cultural changes?

• Relative importance of internal compared to external factors in accounting for the British development?

British Industrial Revolution?

A different approach

• High wages

• Technology

• Commercial and Imperial expansion

High wages

Black death (1347-50)

High wages

Black death (1347-50)

• High wages• EMP: European marriage pattern

High Wages

Industrious Revolution, Jan de Vries

• Changing behaviour patterns and organization of time within the family economy

• A turn away from work for self subsistence to work for the market

• Rising intensity of labour in order to buy consumer goods

High wages

Result of the Industrial revolution:

• Rising standard of living

• Or, pessimism perpetuated?

Technology

• Radical enlightenment

No single or linear path of development in the emergence of modern industry, (hudson,29)

Technology

Technological change in Europe

4. Proto-industrialization

Description: During the 17th and 18th Centuries agricultural, industrial, mercantile and demographic change combined together to induce unprecedented growth in decentralised manufacturing production. Most of this production was located in rural villages.

Theorists of Proto-industrialization

• Franklin Mendels:• Proto-industrialization was the first phase of

industrialization

Theorists of Proto-industrialization

• Kriedte, Medick and Schlumbohm• Proto-industrialization might take place in a

workshop system (kaufsystem), or in a putting out system (verlagsystem)

Theorists of Proto-industrialization

• Kriedte, Medick and Schlumbohm• Proto-industrialization might take place in a

workshop system (kaufsystem), or in a putting out system (verlagsstem)

• The transition to the factory system might fail, leading to de-industrialization

4 hypotheses on the connections between Proto-industrialization and Industrialization

1. led to population growth and land fragmentation, broke down traditional regulation of demographic behaviour

by peasants & inheritance systems2. created profits which formed capital for factory

industrialization3. provided merchants with skills and experience for factory

industrialization4. caused commercialization of agriculture: this, in turn, enabled subsequent urbanization and factory

industrialization

The Industrial Revolution: features

• Technological change• Rapid Urbanization• Capital accumulation• Increase in agricultural productivity• Growth of income

Commercial and Imperial Expansion

Inward looking or Global perspective?

Commercial and Imperial Expansion

• Discovering the world

Commercial and Imperial Expansion

Inward looking or Global perspective?

Commercial and Imperial Expansion: Discovering the World

First movers: Gold and silver to Europe

Second movers: No gold and silver, but trade

Commercial and Imperial Expansion: Migration

• Europe to other parts of the world

• Africa to America: Slavery, Cheap labour

Commercial and Imperial Expansion: Capital and goods

• Financing the industrial revolution from profits from global trade?

• Supplying raw material

• The Great Divergence?

Commercial and Imperial expansion: Consumption

Colonial Trade

• Oriental luxuries and exotic American foodstuffs

Commercial and Imperial expansion: Consumption

Colonial Trade

• Oriental luxuries and exotic American foodstuffs

• Stimulus to European consumer goods industries

• Colonial imports to new export markets

Was the Industrial Revolution a Revolution?