Why the industrial revolution was British

Commerce, induced invention, and the scientific revolution1

Bibliographic Data

ID3432829
AuthorsRobert C Allen (0000-0002-0163-5337, University of Oxford, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume64
Issue2
Pages357-384
Publication date2011-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Economic History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0117 • E-ISSN: 1468-0289
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-0289.2010.00532.x
OpenAlexW2144966675
LanguageEN
Citations received35
References cited58

Britain had a unique wage and price structure in the eighteenth century, and that structure is a key to explaining the inventions of the industrial revolution. British wages were very high by international standards, and energy was very cheap. This configuration led British firms to invent technologies that substituted capital and energy for labour. High wages also increased the supply of technology by enabling British people to acquire education and training. Britain's wage and price structure was the result of the country's success in international trade, and that owed much to mercantilism and imperialism. When technology was first invented, it was only profitable to use it in Britain, but eventually it was improved enough that it became cost-effective abroad. When the ‘tipping point’ occurred, foreign countries adopted the technology in its most advanced form

Business · Commerce · Epistemology · Industrial Revolution · Political science · Scientific revolution · Australian History and Society · Economic Theory and Institutions · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law · Philosophy

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