The British Industrial Revolution in Global PerspectiveWhy did the industrial revolution take place in eighteenth-century Britain and not elsewhere in Europe or Asia? In this convincing new account Robert Allen argues that the British industrial revolution was a successful response to the global economy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He shows that in Britain wages were high and capital and energy cheap in comparison to other countries in Europe and Asia. As a result, the breakthrough technologies of the industrial revolution - the steam engine, the cotton mill, and the substitution of coal for wood in metal production - were uniquely profitable to invent and use in Britain. The high wage economy of pre-industrial Britain also fostered industrial development since more people could afford schooling and apprenticeships. It was only when British engineers made these new technologies more cost-effective during the nineteenth century that the industrial revolution would spread around the world. |
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Contents
The highwage economy of preindustrial Britain | |
The agriculturalrevolution | |
Why England succeeded | |
Why was the Industrial Revolution British? | |
The steam engine 8 Cotton | |
Inventors Enlightenment and humancapital | |
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Common terms and phrases
agricultural productivity agricultural revolution Allen andthe Arkwright atthe blast Britain British bythe calories Cambridge capital cent charcoal cheap coal Coalbrookdale coke smelting consumption cost cotton Darby demand Dutch early modern efficiency eighteenth century enclosure energy England English expensive experimentation experiments factor farm farmers Figure France French fuel furnaces growth Hargreaves high wage economy History horology horsepowerhour important inventors improvements income increased Industrial Enlightenment Industrial Revolution innovation inputs inthe invention isocost John Joseph Black labour productivity literacy London machines macroinventions manufacturing mechanical mill Mokyr Newcomen engine nineteenth century northwestern Europe ofthe onthe open fields output patent pig iron population pounds protoindustrial pumping ratio sainfoin scientific seventeenth century simulations Spelsbury spinning jenny steam engine subsistence success Taston textiles thatthe thefirst Thomas Newcomen total factor productivity tothe trade turnips urbanization variable wage country wasa wasnot wasthe water frame Watt Watt’s wood wood fuel workers yarn
Bibliographic information
| Title | The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective New Approaches to Economic and Social History |
| Author | Robert C. Allen |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, 2009 |
| ISBN | 1107469678, 9781107469679 |
| Length | 344 pages |
| Subjects | › › › Business & Economics / Economic History History / Europe / Great Britain / General History / Europe / Renaissance History / World |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |