Vries, J. de, The Industrious Revolution: Consumer Behavior and the Household Economy, 1650
to the Present (2008), 327p.
De Vries, one of the most prominent economic historians of early modern Europe,
introduced the concept of an ‘industrious revolution’ as a fundamental cause of the industrial
revolution in a much noticed journal article in 1994. This book expands and generalizes the
concept and broadens its applicability to our understanding of modern economic growth from the
early 17th century to the present. The concept, and even the phrase, has been well received and
widely discussed by historians. He argues that “the industrious revolution…unfolded gradually
after 1650 linked an intensification of market labor by the household to new consumer
aspirations—what contemporaries called an ‘awakening of the appetites of the mind.’ Many of
these new aspirations reflected individual appetites, and, over time, the multiple voices within
the household put pressure on its integrity, but under the conditions of the times the execution of
new patterns of consumer demand required household strategies.” For de Vries, one of the key
foundations of economic growth in North-Western Europe was its peculiar (in world-wide terms)
marriage pattern of relatively late marriages and households consisting of independent nuclear
families. These households responded both to market conditions and consumer aspirations.
During the early modern period, households combined purchased goods with household labor to
produce commodities for final consumption using available technologies. De Vries argues that
consumption itself is dynamic. It reflects both the changing desires of the households and the
changing opportunities available in the marketplace and often involves the pursuit of clusters of
commodities which constitute “lifestyles.” He argues that from the mid-17th century both
consumer demand and the supply of labor grew by the reallocation of the productive resources of
households, resulting in a rise of household production sold to others and of consumption
purchased from others. This economic growth produced market integration, such as agricultural
specialization, proto-industrial production, increased wage labor, more commercial participation
in a growing market economy, but especially a greater supply of labor. During the period
leading up to the industrial revolution, de Vries argued, “household members worked harder and
longer in order to consume more and consume different and new products.” An important part of
the argument is that it was especially women and children who played a greater role in market
production and consumption.
De Vries does not claim that the “industrious revolution” is the ultimate cause of the first
industrial revolution, but he suggests that the concept, which he acknowledges was first used by
Akira Hayami to describe Japan’s labor intensive path to industrialization, seeks to provide a
fuller account of the context in which the new technologies and organizational changes that
characterize the industrial revolution should be seen. According to de Vries, “the industrious
revolution that began in the late seventeenth century…formed the context in which the Industrial
Revolution unfolded rather than being itself a creation of that sequence of events.” The essential
argument in de Vries’ framework is that the industrious revolution was not a response to
economic factors, such as changes in prices and incomes, or the scientific revolution but an
autonomous rise in the “goods aspirations” of households, which produced an enlarged supply of
labor. De Vries admits that “the record of real wages…does not on the face of it, offer much
scope for innovative consumer behavior or an expansive material culture.” However, he notes
that that the North-Western European marriage patterns of independent nuclear family
households encouraged not just an increase in male head of household labor but also the
increased participation of women and children in market labor. De Vries’ argument that the
industrious revolution should be seen as a major factor in explaining the first industrial
revolution has produced a great deal of discussion and will no doubt be tested empirically,
assuming the data is available. See, for example, the important work of Jan Luiten van Zanden
(in this bibliography below).