This page intentionally left blank The British Industrial Revolution An Economic Perspective SECOND EDITION EDITED BY Joel Mokyr Westview Press A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher Copyright © 1999 by Westview Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group Published in 1999 in the United States of America by Westview Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301-2877, and in the United Kingdom by Westview Press, 12 Hid's Copse Road, Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9JJ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The British industrial revolution: an economic perspective / edited by Joel Mokyr p, cm "Second edition"—P A collection of new or updated essays and the editor's introduction, a survey and evaluation of contemporary research ISBN 0-8133-3389-X (pbk.) Industrial revolution—Great Britain Great BritainEconomic conditions—1760-1860 Mokyr, Joel HC254.5.B88 1998 338.0941—dc21 98-45108 CIP The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-1984, 10 Dedicated to tnc mcniory oi JONATHAN R.T HUGHES This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgements Editor's Introduction; Tie New Economic History and tie Industrial Revolution JoelMokyr Tie Fable of tie Dead Horse; or, Tie Industrial Revolution Revisited David S, Landes ix xi 128 Reassessing tie Industrial Revolution: A Macro View C, KnickHorley 160 Too Muci Revolution: Agriculture in tie Industrial Revolution, 1700-186© Gregory Clark 206 Tie Role of Education and Skill in tie Britisi Industrial Revolution David Mitch 241 Bibliography About the Book About the Contributors Index 230 331 332 This page intentionally left blank Tables and Figures Tables 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Estimated Annual Rates of Growth, 1700-1871 Exports Growth, 1700-1S51 Coun.erfac.ual Decline in Income per Capita "Without" an Industrial Revolution Nominal Wages, Real Wages, and Prices, 1787-1851 Nominal Wages, Prices, and Real Wages, 1787-1872 115 118 120 2.1 2.2 2.3 Great Britain: Growth Rates in Real Output, 1700-1860 Index Numbers of British Real Output, 1760-1800 Relative Backwardness of Groups of Countries, 1800-1970 134 135 155 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Indices of Output, Various Industties Industrial Structure, 1841,1815, and 1770 Indices of Aggrepte Industrial Production, 1700-1841 National Income, 1700-1870 Sources of Growth, 1700-1860, Crafts' Estimates Sectoral Contributions to Productivity: Annual Percentage Growth, 1780-1860 Cotton Textile Production and Consumption, Effects of Terms of Trade 168 171 172 178 183 3.7 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 11 69 184 187 4.7 Estimated Productivity Levels, 1700-1860 Agricultural Performance Ckca 1850 Threshing Rates by Half Century, 1600-1850 Numbers of Recorded Wage Payments by Month, 1690-1730 Nominal and Real Ap'iculniral Output, 1700-1861 Production and Imports of Food, Raw Materials and Energy, 1700-1850 Estimated Output Levels, 1700-1860 207 211 227 228 232 234 237 5.1 5.2 Male Illiteracy by Occupational Group for English Parishes Skilled Wage Premiums 263 269 ... ludicrous for an economic historian at the end of the twentieth century to pretend to be equally ignorant In sum, in considering whether there "was an Industrial Revolution" I cannot better than cite... career of study and reflection on the topic "Was there an Industtial Revolution? " succinctly: "There was an Industrial Revolution and it was British" (Hartwell, 1990, p 575) Despite the announcements... practically any economic variable one chooses is far higher between 1760 and 1830 than in any period since the Black Death The key concept is an increase in the rate of change, not the occurence of change