The Great Divergence

Why Britain Industrialised First

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20437265
AutoresPhilip T Hoffman (California Institute of Technology, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen60
Número2
Páginas126-147
Fecha de publicación2020-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAustralian Economic History Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0004-8992 • E-ISSN: 1467-8446
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/aehr.12192
OpenAlexW3008746026
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas57

What drove the precocious industrialisation in Britain was not demand for machines but rather (as Joel Mokyr and his co‐authors have argued) the supply of useful knowledge and the skills needed to put it into practice. They were the force behind early innovation. But they did not act alone. They were reinforced by British institutions, which gave the British economy a century's head start over the rest of Europe and likely too over the rich parts of Asia. The institutions included a uniform fiscal and legal system; an effective means of training apprentices, who had escaped from local guild control; and a parliament that could raise taxes and exercise eminent domain but was at the same time a credible protector of private property. Among other things, these institutions facilitated the transportation of goods such as coal and they were backed up by policies that worked in favour of manufacturing. Together, the institutions and policies generated agglomeration effects that encouraged innovation. The agglomeration effects were more pronounced in western Europe than anywhere else in Eurasia and more developed in Britain than anywhere else

Apprenticeship · Economic growth · Economics · Economies of agglomeration · Economy · Foreign direct investment · Geography · Industrialisation · Inward investment · Market economy · Parliament · Political science · Australian History and Society · Economic Growth and Productivity · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law