Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Industrial Revolution: The Industrial Revolution marks a pivotal period from the late 18th to mid-19th century, characterized by a profound shift from agrarian and handcrafted economies to mechanized manufacturing and industrialization. It introduced technological advancements, like steam power and mechanized production. See also Industrial production, Industrialization, Technology, Division of Labour, Progress, Labour, Society._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Daron Acemoglu on Industrial Revolution - Dictionary of Arguments
Acemoglu I 197 Industrial Revolution/institutions/Acemoglu/Robinson: The Industrial Revolution was manifested in every aspect of the English economy. There were major improvements in transportation, metallurgy, and steam power. But the most significant area of innovation was the mechanization of textile production and the development of factories to produce these manufactured textiles. This dynamic process was unleashed by the institutional changes that flowed from the Glorious Revolution. This was not just about the abolition of domestic monopolies, which had been achieved by 1640, or about different taxes or access to finance. It was about a fundamental reorganization of economic institutions in favor of innovators and entrepreneurs, based on the emergence of more secure and efficient property rights. Acemolgu I 198 Property: Underlying the transportation revolution and, more generally, the reorganization of land that took place in the eighteenth century were parliamentary acts that changed the nature of property ownership. Land ownership: Common land could often be used only for traditional uses. There were enormous impediments to using land in ways that would be economically desirable. Parliament began to change this, allowing groups of people to petition Parliament to simplify and reorganize property rights, alterations that were subsequently embodied into hundreds of acts of Parliament. This reorganization of economic institutions also manifested itself in the emergence of an agenda to protect domestic textile production against foreign imports. Acemolgu I 202 Innovations/technology: By 1760 the combination of all these factors - improved and new property rights, improved infrastructure, a changed fiscal regime, greater access to finance, and aggressive protection of traders and manufacturers - was beginning to have an effect. After this date, there was a jump in the number of patented inventions, and the great flowering of technological change that was to be at the heart of the Industrial Revolution began to be evident. Acemoglu I 207 Institutions: It was the inclusive nature (>Terminology/Acemoglu) of English institutions that allowed this process to take place. Those who suffered from and feared creative destruction were no longer able to stop it. Geographical factors: why [did it happen] in England? The Industrial Revolution started and made its biggest strides in England because of her uniquely inclusive economic institutions. These in turn were built on foundations laid by the inclusive political institutions brought about by the Acemoglu I 208 Glorious Revolution. It was the Glorious Revolution that strengthened and rationalized property rights, improved financial markets, undermined state-sanctioned monopolies in foreign trade, and removed the barriers to the expansion of industry. This outcome was a consequence of the drift in English institutions and the way they interacted with critical junctures. >Institutional drift/Acemoglu, >Critical junctures/Acemoglu. Literature: Our overview of the economic history of the Industrial Revolution rests on Mantoux (1961)(1). Our argument about the causes of the Industrial Revolution is highly influenced by the arguments made in North and Thomas (1973)(2), North and Weingast (1989)(3), Brenner (1993)(4), Pincus (2009)(5), and Pincus and Robinson (2010)(6). These scholars in turn were inspired by earlier Marxist interpretations of British institutional change and the emergence of capitalism; see Dobb (1963)(7) and Hill (1961(8), 1980(9)). 1.Mantoux, Paul (1961). The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century. Rev. ed. New York: Harper and Row. 2.North, Douglass C. and Robert P. Thomas (1973). The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic History. New York: Cambridge University Press. 3.North, Douglass C., and Barry R. Weingast (1989). “Constitutions and Commitment: Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in 17th Century England.” Journal of Economic History 49: 803–32. 4.Brenner, Robert (1993). Merchants and Revolution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 5.Pincus, Steven C. A. (2009). 1688: The First Modern Revolution. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. 6. Pincus, Steven C. A., and James A. Robinson (2010). “What Really Happened During the Glorious Revolution?” Unpublished. http://scholar.harvard.edu/jrobinson. 7.Dobb, Maurice (1963). Studies in the Development of Capitalism. Rev. ed. New York: International Publishers. 8.Hill, Christopher (1961). The Century of Revolution, 1603–1714. New York: W. W. Norton and Co. 9. - (1980). “A Bourgeois Revolution?” In Lawrence Stone, ed. The British Revolutions: 1641, 1688, 1776. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Acemoglu II James A. Acemoglu James A. Robinson Economic origins of dictatorship and democracy Cambridge 2006 Acemoglu I James A. Acemoglu James A. Robinson Why nations fail. The origins of power, prosperity, and poverty New York 2012 |
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