The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective

345 Pages·2009·1.6 MB·English

by  Allen R.C.

The British Industrial Revolution
in Global Perspective
Why did the Industrial Revolution take place in eighteenth-century Britain
and not elsewhere in Europe or Asia? In this convincing new account Robert
Allen argues that the British Industrial Revolution was a successful response
to the global economy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He shows
that in Britain wages were high and capital and energy cheap in comparison
to other countries in Europe and Asia. As a result the breakthrough
technologies of the Industrial Revolution – the steam engine, the cotton mill,
and the substitution of coal for wood in metal production – were uniquely
profi table to invent and use in Britain. The high wage economy of pre-
industrial Britain also fostered industrial development since more people
could afford schooling and apprenticeships. It was only when British
engineers made these new technologies more cost-effective during the
nineteenth century that the Industrial Revolution would spread around the
world.
Robert C. Allen is Professor of Economic History at Oxford University and
a fellow of Nuffi eld College. His books include Enclosure and the Yeoman:
The Agricultural Development of the South Midlands, 1450–1850 (1992),
and Farm to Factory: A Re-interpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution
(2003), both of which won the Ranki Prize of the Economic History
Association.
NEW APPROACHES TO ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY
Edited for the Economic History Society by
nigel goose, University of Hertfordshire
larry neal, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
New Approaches to Economic and Social History is an important new
textbook series published in association with the Economic History Society.
It provides concise but authoritative surveys of major themes and issues in
world economic and social history from the post-Roman recovery to the
present day. Books in the series are by recognised authorities operating at
the cutting edge of their fi eld with an ability to write clearly and succinctly.
The series consists principally of single-author works – academically rigor-
ous and groundbreaking – which offer comprehensive, analytical guides at
a length and level accessible to advanced school students and undergraduate
historians and economists.
The British Industrial
Revolution in Global
Perspective
robert c. allen
University of Oxford
cambridge university press
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo,
Delhi, Mexico City
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521868273
© Robert C. Allen 2009
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2009
6th printing 2012
Printed and bound by MPG Books Group, UK
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-0-521-86827-3 Hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-68785-0 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in
this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is,
or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Contents
List of plates page vi
List of fi gures vii
List of tables ix
Acknowledgments x
1 The Industrial Revolution and the pre-industrial
economy 1
Part I The pre-industrial economy 23
2 The high-wage economy of pre-industrial Britain 25
3 The agricultural revolution 57
4 The cheap energy economy 80
5 Why England succeeded 106
Part II The Industrial Revolution 133
6 Why was the Industrial Revolution British? 135
7 The steam engine 156
8 Cotton 182
9 Coke smelting 217
10 Inventors, Enlightenment and human capital 238
11 From Industrial Revolution to modern economic growth 272
References 276
Index 313
Plates
6.1 English kiln (image courtesy of Dianne Frank) page 145
6.2 Chinese kiln (image courtesy of Dianne Frank) 146
7.1 Abstraction of Von Guericke’s illustration 159
7.2 Thomas Newcomen’s steam engine 160
8.1 Woman spinning (from ‘Costume of Yorkshire’, by
George Walker, 1814, Private Collection/The
Bridgeman Art Library) 189
8.2 Reconstruction of Hargreaves’ ‘spinning jenny’ of
1770 (Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library) 190
8.3 Arkwright’s water frame, c. 1775 (© Science
Museum/Science and Society) 196
8.4 Arkwright’s water frame, c. 1775, detail (© Science
Museum/Science and Society) 197
8.5 Rolling mill (courtesy of Uwe Niggemeier) 198
8.6 Enlarged view of the rollers, spindle and bobbin (Wyatt
and Paul) 199
Figures
2.1 Labourers’ wages around the world page 34
2.2 Respectability ratio for labourers: income/cost of
respectable basket 39
2.3 Subsistence ratio for labourers: income/costs of
subsistence basket 40
2.4 Subsistence ratio for labourers in Europe and the United
States: annual earnings relative to the cost of the
subsistence basket 42
2.5 Labourers’ wage across England 43
2.6 Respectability ratio for masons: income/cost of
respectable basket 45
3.1 The standard model of agriculture and English economic
development 58
3.2 Agricultural labour productivity 60
3.3 Farm and labourers’ daily earnings 76
3.4 Alternative farm incomes with and without productivity
growth 78
4.1 Prices of energy, early 1700s 83
4.2 Prices of wood fuels in London 86
4.3 Real prices of wood and coal in London 87
4.4 Real prices of wood and coal in the midlands 95
5.1 Flowchart (one period) of the model 113
5.2 Supply and demand for labour 114
5.3 Total productivity in English cloth 121
5.4 Simulated urbanization rate, 1300–1800 122
5.5 Simulated agricultural total factor productivity,
1300–1800 122
5.6 Simulated real wage, 1300–1800 123
5.7 Simulated urbanization rate, 1300–1800 125
5.8 Simulated agricultural total factor productivity,
1300–1800 126
viii List of fi gures
5.9 Simulated real wage, 1300–1800 126
6.1 Wage relative to price of capital 139
6.2 Price of labour relative to energy, early 1700s 140
6.3 Phase 1: macro-inventions 152
6.4 Phase 2: the trajectory of micro-improvements 155
7.1 Coal consumption in pumping engines: pounds of
coal per horsepower-hour 165
7.2 Coal consumption in rotary engines: pounds of coal
per horsepower-hour 171
7.3 Pumping engine: costs per horsepower-hour 174
7.4 Rotary engine: costs per horsepower-hour 175
8.1 Real price of cotton yarn 188
8.2 Real price of cotton yarn 208
9.1 Average total cost per ton of pig iron 220
9.2 Total factor productivity in pig iron production 220
9.3 Components of cost valued in 1755 prices 221
9.4 Proportion of iron smelted with coal or coke 229
9.5 Average pit head price of coal 231
9.6 Price of charcoal 231