The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective (New Approaches to Economic and Social History)

Why 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. Cover 1 Title 5 Copyright 6 Contents 7 List of plates 8 List of figures 9 List of tables 11 Acknowledgments 12 1 The Industrial Revolution and the pre-industrial economy 15 Part I: The pre-industrial economy 37 2 The high-wage economy of pre-industrial Britain 39 3 The agricultural revolution 71 4 The cheap energy economy 94 5 Why England succeeded 120 Part II: The Industrial Revolution 147 6 Why was the Industrial Revolution British? 149 7 The steam engine 170 8 Cotton 196 9 Coke smelting 231 10 Inventors, Enlightenment and human capital 252 11 From Industrial Revolution to modern economic growth 286 References 290 Index 327 A 327 B 328 C 329 D 331 E 332 F 333 G 333 H 334 I 334 J 335 K 335 L 335 M 337 N 337 O 338 P 338 Q 339 R 339 S 340 T 342 U 343 V 343 W 343 Y 345 Why did the industrial revolution take place in 18th century Britain and not elsewhere in Europe or Asia? Robert Allen argues that the British industrial revolution was a successful response to the global economy of the 17th and 18th centuries Robert C. Allen. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [276]-312) And Index.