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 profitable 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.
| ISBN: | 9780521868273 |
| Publication date: | 9th April 2009 |
| Author: | Robert C University of Oxford Allen |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 344 pages |
| Series: | New Approaches to Economic and Social History |
| Genres: |
Industrialisation and industrial history European history Economic history |
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 profitable 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.
The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective features in the following genres: Industrialisation and industrial history, European history, Economic history
The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective is available in Hardback
The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective was written by Robert C University of Oxford Allen and published by Cambridge University Press
The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective has 344 pages
Yes it is part of New Approaches to Economic and Social History series
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