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.

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The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective

The Industrious Revolution by Jan de Vries

We provide annual estimates of GDP for England between 1270 and 1700 and 
for Great Britain between 1700 and 1870, constructed from the output side. The GDP 
data are combined with population estimates to calculate GDP per capita. We find 
English per capita income growth of 0.20 per cent per annum between 1270 and 1700, 
although growth was episodic, with the strongest growth during the Black Death crisis of 
the fourteenth century and in the second half of the seventeenth century. For the period 
1700-1870, we find British per capita income growth of 0.48 per cent, broadly in line 
with the widely accepted Crafts/Harley estimates. This modest trend growth in per capita 
income since 1270 suggests that, working back from the present, living standards in the 
late medieval period were well above “bare bones subsistence”. This can be reconciled 
with modest levels of kilocalorie consumption per head because of the very large share of 
pastoral production in agriculture.

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British Economic Growth, 1270-1870

The British Industrial Revolution triggered a socioeconomic transformation whereby the landowning aristocracy was replaced by industrial capitalists rising from the middle classes as the economically dominant group. We propose a theory of preference formation under financial market imperfections that can account for this pattern. Parents shape their children’s preferences in response to economic incentives. Middle-class families in occupations requiring effort, skill, and experience develop patience and a work ethic, whereas upper-class families relying on rental income cultivate a refined taste for leisure. These class-specific attitudes, which are rooted in the nature of preindustrial professions, become key determinants of success once industrialization transforms the economic landscape. I. INTRODUCTION The Industrial Revolution was more than capital accumulation and growth. It also set off a social and political transformation that redefined hierarchies in society and reshaped the distribution of income and wealth. Before the onset of industrialization in eighteenth-century Britain, wealth and political power were associated with the possession of land. Over the course of the nineteenth century, a new class of entrepreneurs and businessmen emerged as the economic elite. For the most part, the members of this class rose from humble beginnings and had their social origins in the urban middle classes. The landed elite was left behind and eventually lost its political and economic predominance. Many observers of the time linked this reversal in economic fortunes to differences in values, attitudes, and ultimately preferences across social classes. There are countless examples, both in scholarly and in fictional writing, of portrayals of members of the landowning class as averse to work, unwilling to save, ill-disposed tocommercialactivity,andunabletoconsidermoneyassomething

/pdf/occupational-choice-and-the-spirit-of-capitalism-208vlvv5bl.pdf

Occupational Choice and the Spirit of Capitalism

1. The transformation of consumer desire in the long eighteenth century 2. The origins of the Industrious Revolution 3. The Industrious Revolution: the supply of labor 4. The Industrious Revolution: consumer demand 5. The breadwinner-homemaker household 6. A second Industrious Revolution? Appendix I.

The industrious revolution: consumer behavior and the household economy, 1650 to the present

Part 1 The English aristocracy: who were the aristocracy? the making of the aristocracy - land the making of the aristocracy - channels of admission. Part 2 The aristocracy and the economy: the aristocratic estates the aristocracy and the agricultural revolution aristocratic entrepreneurs in industry the aristocracy and communications improvements the aristocracy and the towns the aristocratic contribution. Part 3 The aristocracy in society and government: the aristocracy at home - social leadership the aristocracy at home - local government the aristocracy and the state - the consolidation of power the aristocracy and the state - the maintenance of power Conclusion - the decline of the aristocracy.

The aristocracy in England, 1660-1914

'Byron and Newstead' is a study of England's greatest Romantic poet in the context of his role as an English aristocrat. The book examines the whole structure of Byron's complex, financial problems from his youth to his final days in Greece, and it shows how important it is to see these in the context of his aristocratic heritage. For the first time Byron is examined as a landed aristocrat, and his business affairs unraveled in this context.

Byron And Newstead: The Aristocrat and the Abbey

The Aristocracy in England, 1660-1914.

One of the most hotly debated issues in nineteenth-century England was the land question. An increasingly vociferous reform movement argued that the vast majority of the country's property was in the hands of a comparatively small elite; and this monopoly was regarded by observers both on the continent and in England as a root cause of many social problems.' Statistical evidence drawn from the I 86I census provided grist to the reformers' mill since it apparently implied that a total population of 30 million included only 30,000 landowners. If few people seriously doubted that some concentration of ownership had taken place, many were sceptical about the census figures, and one of the most substantial landowners, the Earl of Derby, campaigned for a general survey of ownership. The result was the Return of Owners of Land, compiled in i872-3, and widely known as the "New Domesday" since it was the first comprehensive analysis of the subject since io86. Even allowing for the inaccuracies with which the survey was riddled, it partially vindicated Derby's claim by showing that more than one million people owned some land; on the other hand, the figures could also be interpreted to show that four-fifths of the total acreage was in the possession of fewer than 7,000 proprietors.2

The Pattern of Landownership in England and Wales, 1660‐1880

Agricultural historians have long been aware that a major increase in productivity and output characterised the so-called ‘agricultural revolution’. Usually, however, this has been measured by indirect means: the fact, for example, that English farmers were able to feed some 3 million more people in 1700 than in 1540, and almost 20 million more in 1880 than in 1750. Since mouths were fed without recourse to massive imports -which would have had significant economic implications for the industrial revolution -and since these increases in output were achieved while the agricultural labour force was in steep relative decline, the obvious implication is that productivity was increasing. Measuring such changes has proved complex, partly because data were not collected in a systematic fashion prior to the 1870s, and partly because such evidence as we have relating to prices and rents hardly represents an adequate proxy for productivity. In general terms, the best material has been for the grain acreage, particularly for wheat and barley.

Animal Husbandry and Agricultural Improvement: The Archaeological Evidence from Animal Bones and Teeth

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