Economic History Ch5

industrial revolution 1

Toynbee’s Industrial Revolution

The economic development of England from 1760-1800s.

Industrial Revolution now is a broader term used for the transition from agrarian to industrial economies

Trade and Secondary Sector reasons for England

• English fleets overtook the Dutch— dominated ocean trade

• American colonies demanded English manufactured goods

• Growth of the secondary sector— artisanal products

• EMP

• Industrious revolution— growth in hours and participation in workforce

Institutional framework reasons for England

• Norman Invasion 11th century— last invasion of Britain. created a stable ruling institution that could uniformly impose regulation like tax. stability

• relatively open— parliament had some power over the monarchy

• Glorious Revolution of 1688— power structures of parliament gave it more power over monarchy. Openness for nobles to influence institutions to take advantage of trade

Demographic reasons

• Escape of Malthusian constraints by agricultural revolution

• high population growth preceding and during

• high urbanisation

• Pomeranz asserts agri rev was not sustainable enough to escape malthu— needed american colonial imports too

agricultural revolution in England 17thc

17thc

New tech

• new crop rotation systems

• better seeds and animals

• capitalistic farms

• enclosures for sheep grazing

• better soil preparation

Bob Allen’s rationale for wages in england

England, Belgium and Dutch Republic had very high wages

• incentivized the replacement of labor w machinery

• healthier, better workers

Unique to England: cheap coal + high wages + abudant capital through atlantic trade

Allen— What caused higher wages?

• Black Death advantages leveraged and sustained

• deep integration with atlantic trade— demand for luxury imports spurred local production, increased labor demand driving up wages

Mokyr’s rationale for the “Indusrial Enlightenment”

• the Enlightenment— 17-18thc embrace of reason and logic to improve the human condition and knowledge

• industrial revolution would have stalled without the enlightenments pursuit of knowledge and progress

  • sees industrialization as a broader process, not a moment

3 features of tech development

1. replacement of human skill w machinery

2. replacement of human/animal generated power with inanimate power (water,steam)

   1. improved processing and obtainment of raw materials

Kays flying shuttle

1733, doubled weavers productivity. created a bottleneck— too efficiently used yarn, so needed more yarn

Calico Acts 18th C

banned import of popular cotton textiles. Spurred local production to fulfill the demand

Arkwrights water frame

4 spindles, powered by water to create yarn

Spinning Jenny

8 spindles, handpowered

Crompton’s mule

300+ spindles using different types of yarn

How did bottleneck of the cotton industry change following arkwrights water frame, spinning jenny, and comptons mule?

surplus of yarn necessitated more efficient weaving. semi-automatic loom in 19th c (water→steam)

Effect of the 18thc innovation that efficiently turned iron ore into pig iron using coke

drove up demand for coal. created a bottleneck. wh

why was coal a bottleneck

despite englands vast coal deposits, flooding made it very difficult to obtain.

Solution to coal industry’s bottleneck

18thc Newcomen’s steam engine powered hydraulic pumps to remove water

Boulton and Watt’s improvement upon Newcomen’s steam engine

more efficient. defended with patents which stalled steam engine innovation— took a century for it to really become prevalent

Cotton Mill factory prototype

• waged workers worked together

• fixed schedules and rules

  • didn’t own means of production

benefits of factories for “capitalists”

• centralization of energy

• easy supervision of workers

• easier quality control

  • division of processes

Craft’s opinion of the industrial revolution

he believes it was exaggerated . Britain must have been richer than previously thought.

Explain England’s slow total factor productivity growth (measures efficiency)

• uneven impact of tech progress

• very incremental, slow progress (see steam)

  • expensive to invent, weak right protections, low investments in innovation

Why was britain able to maintain itslead

• access to water power, coal, ocean, markets, early adopters of steam

• Agglomerations of firms in cities created competitive advantage through shared supply and information diffusion

  • supportive policy: flexible land use, infrastructure(rails,canals)

WHy was britain’s complete domination not long-term

1. open economy

2. agglomerations pushed out new sectors and left vulnerable to global demand

3. institutional aspects made hard to adapt— no emphasis on banks unlike the Flemish

The case of Belgium

• independence in 1830

• benefitted from proximity to england

• violated bans on english machinery exports and bans on imports of half-finished english goods

• rich in coal and iron, river transport

• active government during their revolution: established commercial and investment bank