THE MAKING OF THE
MODERN WORLD
THE 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 systems
2. created profits which formed capital for factory
industrialization
3. provided merchants with skills and experience for factory
industrialization
4. caused commercialization of agriculture:
this, in turn, enabled subsequent urbanization and factory
industrialization
The Industrial Revolution: features
•
•
•
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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?