The Great Divergence

Why Britain Industrialised First

Bibliographic Data

ID20437265
AuthorsPhilip T Hoffman (California Institute of Technology, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume60
Issue2
Pages126-147
Publication date2020-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAustralian Economic History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0004-8992 • E-ISSN: 1467-8446
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/aehr.12192
OpenAlexW3008746026
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited57

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