1932

Abstract

Many explanations have been offered for the British Industrial Revolution. This article points to the importance of human capital (broadly defined) and the quality of the British labor force on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. It shows that in terms of both physical quality and mechanical skills, British workers around 1750 were at a much higher level than their continental counterparts. As a result, new inventions—no matter where they originated—were adopted earlier, faster, and on a larger scale in Britain than elsewhere. The gap in labor quality is consistent with the higher wages paid in eighteenth-century Britain. The causes for the higher labor quality are explored and found to be associated with a higher level of nutrition and better institutions, especially England’s Poor Law and the superior functioning of its apprenticeship system.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-economics-080213-041042
2014-08-02
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/economics/6/1/annurev-economics-080213-041042.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-economics-080213-041042&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Acemoglu D. 2001. Factor prices and technical change: from induced innovations to recent debates. Work. Pap. 01-39, Dep. Econ., Mass. Inst. Technol., Cambridge, MA
  2. Acemoglu D. 2002. Directed technical change. Rev. Econ. Stud. 69:781–809 [Google Scholar]
  3. Acemoglu D. 2010. When does labor scarcity induce innovation?. J. Polit. Econ. 118:1037–78 [Google Scholar]
  4. Allen RC. 2005. English and Welsh agriculture, 1300–1850: output, inputs, and income. Work. Pap., Nuffield Coll., Oxford, UK
  5. Allen RC. 2009a. The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  6. Allen RC. 2009b. The Industrial Revolution in miniature: the spinning jenny in Britain, France, and India. J. Econ. Hist. 69:901–27 [Google Scholar]
  7. Allen RC. 2010. Why the Industrial Revolution was British: commerce, induced innovation, and the scientific revolution. Econ. Hist. Rev. 64:357–84 [Google Scholar]
  8. Aron J-P, Dumont P, Emmanuel LRL. 1972. Anthropologie du Conscrit Français Paris: Mouton
  9. Baten J, Crayen D, Voth J. 2014. Numeracy and the impact of high food prices in industrializing Britain, 1780–1850. Rev. Econ. Stat. In press [Google Scholar]
  10. Becker SO, Hornung E, Woessmann L. 2011. Education and human capital in the Industrial Revolution. Am. Econ. J. Macroecon. 3:92–126 [Google Scholar]
  11. Blayo Y. 1975. La mortalité en France de 1740 á 1829. Population 30:123–42 [Google Scholar]
  12. Blum J. 1974. The condition of the European peasantry on the eve of emancipation. J. Mod. Hist. 46:395–424 [Google Scholar]
  13. Bozzoli C, Deaton A, Quintana-Domeque C. 2009. Adult height and childhood disease. Demography 46:647–69 [Google Scholar]
  14. Broadberry S, Campbell BMS, van Leeuwen B. 2013. When did Britain industrialise? The sectoral distribution of the labour force and labour productivity in Britain, 1381–1851. Explor. Econ. Hist. 50:16–27 [Google Scholar]
  15. Brunt L. 2006. Why was England first? Agricultural productivity growth in England and France, 1700–1850. Work. Pap., Dep. Econ., Ecole Hautes Etud. Commer., Lausanne, Switz .
  16. Case A, Paxson C. 2008. Stature and status: height, ability, and labor market outcomes. J. Polit. Econ. 116:499–532 [Google Scholar]
  17. Chanut J-M, Heffer J, Mairesse J, Postel-Vinay G. 1995. La disparité des salaires en France au XIXe siècle. Hist. Mes. 10:381–409 [Google Scholar]
  18. Clark G. 1991. Yields per acre in English agriculture, 1250–1860: evidence from labour inputs. Econ. Hist. Rev. 44:445–60 [Google Scholar]
  19. Crébouw Y. 1986. Salaires et salariés agricoles en France des débuts de la revolution aux approches du XXe siècle. PhD thesis, Univ. Paris I
  20. Crimmins EM, Finch CE. 2006. Infection, inflammation, height, and longevity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 10:498–503 [Google Scholar]
  21. d’Angeville A. 1836. Essai sur la Statistique de la Population Française Paris: F. Darfour
  22. David PA. 1975. Technical Choice, Innovation, and Economic Growth Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  23. de Muralt BL. 1726. Letters Describing the Character and Customs of the English and French Nations London: Thomas Edlin
  24. De Vries J. 1984. European Urbanization, 1500–1800 London: Methuen
  25. Defoe D. 1728. A Plan of the English Commerce London: Charles Rivington
  26. Dennison T, Simpson J. 2010. Agriculture. In The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol. 1: 1700–1850, ed. S Broadberry, K O’Rourke, pp. 147–63. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  27. Desaguliers JT. 1734–1744. A Course of Experimental Philosophy. London: John Senex
  28. Dobbs BJT, Jacob MC. 1995. Newton and the Culture of Newtonianism New York: Humanity
  29. Epstein SR. 1998. Craft guilds, apprenticeship, and technological change in preindustrial Europe. J. Econ. Hist. 58:684–713 [Google Scholar]
  30. Farr JR. 2000. Artisans in Europe, 1300–1914 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  31. Feyrer J, Politi D, Weil DN. 2013. The cognitive effects of micronutrient deficiency: evidence from salt iodization in the United States. NBER Work. Pap. 19233
  32. Fildes VA. 1986. Breasts, Bottles and Babies: A History of Infant Feeding Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press
  33. Floud R, Fogel RW, Harris B, Hong SC. 2011. The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World Since 1700 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  34. Fogel RW. 2004. The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death: Europe, America, and the Third World Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  35. Forde LE, Detterline AJ, Ho KK, Wenyuan C. 2000. Gender- and height-related limits of muscle strength in world weightlifting champions. J. Appl. Physiol. 89:1061–64 [Google Scholar]
  36. Foster CF, Jones EL. 2013. The Fabric of Society and How It Creates Wealth Cheshire, UK: Arley Hall
  37. Fox R. 1984. Science, industry, and the social order in Mulhouse, 1798–1871. Br. J. Hist. Sci. 17:127–68 [Google Scholar]
  38. Gao W, Smyth R. 2009. Health human capital, height and wages in China. Work. Pap., Monash Univ., Melbourne
  39. Glaeser EL, La Porta R, Lopez-de-Silanes F, Shleifer A. 2004. Do institutions cause growth?. J. Econ. Growth 9:271–303 [Google Scholar]
  40. Gragnolati U, Moschella D, Pugliese E. 2011. The spinning jenny and the Industrial Revolution: a reappraisal. J. Econ. Hist. 71:455–60 [Google Scholar]
  41. Grantham G. 1991. The growth of labour productivity in the production of wheat in the Cinq Grosses Fermes of France, 1750–1929. Land, Labour and Livestock: Historical Studies in European Agriculture Campbell B, Overton M. 340–63 Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  42. Grantham G. 1993. Divisions of labour: agricultural productivity and occupational specialization in pre-industrial Europe. Econ. Hist. Rev. 46:478–502 [Google Scholar]
  43. Great Britain 1824. First Report from Select Committee on Artizans and Machinery. Br. Parliam. Pap., Vol. 5, No. 51. Edgware, UK: Vallentine Mitchell
  44. Great Britain 1825. Report from the Select Committee on the Laws Relating to the Export of Tools and Machinery. Br. Parliam. Pap., Vol. 5, No. 504. Edgware, UK: Vallentine Mitchell
  45. Great Britain 1841. First Report from Select Committee Appointed to Inquire into the Operation of the Existing Laws Affecting the Exportation of Machinery. Br. Parliam. Pap. Vol. 5, No. 201. Edgware, UK: Vallentine Mitchell
  46. Greif A, Iyigun M. 2013. Social organizations, violence and modern growth. IZA Discuss. Pap. 7377
  47. Habakkuk HJ. 1962. American and British Technology in the Nineteenth Century Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  48. Hanlon W. 2013. Necessity is the mother of invention: input supplies and directed technical change. Work. Pap., Dep. Econ., Univ. Calif., Los Angeles
  49. Harris B, Floud R, Fogel RW, Hong SC. 2010. Diet, health and work intensity in England and Wales, 1700–1914. NBER Work. Pap. 15875
  50. Harris JR. 1992. Skills, coal and British industry in the eighteenth century. Essays in Industry and Technology in the Eighteenth Century Aldershot, UK: Ashgate [Google Scholar]
  51. Harris JR. 1998. Industrial Espionage and Technology Transfer: Britain and France in the Eighteenth Century Aldershot, UK: Ashgate
  52. Heckman JJ. 2007. The economics, technology, and neuroscience of human capability formation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104:13250–55 [Google Scholar]
  53. Henderson WO. 1954. Britain and Industrial Europe, 1750–1870: Studies in British Influence on the Industrial Revolution in Western Europe Liverpool, UK: Liverpool Univ. Press
  54. Heyberger L. 2007. Toward an anthropometric history of provincial France, 1780–1920. Econ. Hum. Biol. 5:229–54 [Google Scholar]
  55. Heys M, Jiang C, Schooling CM, Zhang W-S, Cheng KK et al. 2010. Is childhood meat eating associated with better later adulthood cognition in a developing population?. Eur. J. Epidemiol. 25:507–16 [Google Scholar]
  56. Hills RL. 2002. Life and Inventions of Richard Roberts Ashbourne, UK: Landmark
  57. Hofbauer J, Sigmund K. 1998. Evolutionary Games and Population Dynamics Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  58. Hollister-Short GJ. 1976. Leads and lags in late seventeenth century English technology. Hist. Technol. 1:159–83 [Google Scholar]
  59. Hornbeck R, Naidu S. 2012. When the levee breaks: labor mobility and economic development in the American South. Work. Pap., Dep. Econ., Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA
  60. Horrell S, Oxley D. 2012. Bringing home the bacon? Regional nutrition, stature, and gender in the Industrial Revolution. Econ. Hist. Rev. 65:1354–79 [Google Scholar]
  61. Hume D. 1985 (1777). Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary, ed. EF Miller. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund
  62. Humphries J. 2003. English apprenticeships: a neglected factor in the first Industrial Revolution. The Economic Future in Historical Perspective David PA, Thomas M. 73–102 New York: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  63. Humphries J. 2010. Childhood and Child Labour in the British Industrial Revolution Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  64. Humphries J. 2013. The lure of aggregates and the pitfalls of the patriarchal perspective: a critique of the high-wage economy interpretation of the British Industrial Revolution. Econ. Hist. Rev. 66:693–714 [Google Scholar]
  65. Hunt EH. 1986. Industrialization and inequality: regional wages in Britain, 1760–1914. J. Econ. Hist. 46:935–66 [Google Scholar]
  66. Jeremy DI. 1977. Damming the flood: British government efforts to check the outflow of technicians and machinery, 1780–1843. Bus. Hist. Rev. 51:1–34 [Google Scholar]
  67. Jeremy DI. 1981. Transatlantic Industrial Revolution: The Diffusion of Textile Technologies Between Britain and America, 1790–1830s Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
  68. Jones EL. 2013. Gentry culture and the stifling of industry. J. Socio-Econ. 47:185–92 [Google Scholar]
  69. Jones G, Schneider WJ. 2006. Intelligence, human capital, and economic growth: a Bayesian averaging of classical estimates (BACE) approach. J. Econ. Growth 11:71–93 [Google Scholar]
  70. Jones G, Schneider WJ. 2010. IQ in the production function: evidence from immigrant earnings. Econ. Inq. 48:743–55 [Google Scholar]
  71. Kalm P. 1892. Kalm’s Account of His Visit to England, on His Way to America in 1748. Trans. J Lucas. London: MacMillan
  72. Kelly M, Ó Gráda C. 2010. The Poor Law of Old England: institutional innovation and demographic regimes. J. Interdiscip. Hist. 41:339–66 [Google Scholar]
  73. Kelly M, Ó Gráda C. 2013. Numerare est errare: agricultural output and food supply in England before and during the Industrial Revolution. J. Econ. Hist. 73:1132–63 [Google Scholar]
  74. Koley S, Ghandi M, Singh AP. 2008. An association of hand grip strength with height, weight and BMI in boys and girls aged 6–25 years of Amritsar, Punjab, India. Internet J. Biol. Anthropol. 2:1 http://ispub.com/IJBA/2/1/6807 [Google Scholar]
  75. Koley S, Kaur N, Sandhu JS. 2009. A study on hand grip strength in female labourers of Jalandhar, Punjab, India. J. Life Sci. 1:57–62 [Google Scholar]
  76. Lancet. 2008. Iodine deficiency: way to go yet. Lancet 372:88
  77. Lindert PH. 2004. Growing Public: Social Spending and Economic Growth Since the Eighteenth Century Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  78. MacLeod C. 1988. Inventing the Industrial Revolution: The English Patent System, 1660–1880 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  79. MacLeod C, Nuvolari A. 2009. Glorious times: the emergence of mechanical engineering in early industrial Britain, c. 1700–1850. Bus. Econ. Rev. 52:215–37 [Google Scholar]
  80. Marshall A. 1919. Industry and Trade London: McMillan
  81. Matossian MK. 1984. Mold poisoning and population growth in England and France, 1750–1850. J. Econ. Hist. 44:669–86 [Google Scholar]
  82. McCloskey D. 2010. Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  83. McLaren A. 1990. A History of Contraception from Antiquity to the Present Oxford: Blackwell
  84. Meisenzahl RR, Mokyr J. 2012. The rate and direction of invention in the British Industrial Revolution: incentives and institutions. The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity Revisited Lerner J, Stern S. 443–79 Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press [Google Scholar]
  85. Mitch D. 1999. The role of education and skill in the British Industrial Revolution. See Mokyr 1999b, pp. 241–79
  86. Mokyr J. 1999a. Editor’s introduction: the new economic history and the Industrial Revolution. See Mokyr 1999b, pp. 1–127
  87. Mokyr J. 1999b. The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Perspective Boulder, CO: Westview, 2nd ed..
  88. Mokyr J. 2009. The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain 1700–1850 New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press
  89. Mokyr J, Ó Gráda C. 1996. Height and health in the United Kingdom 1815–1860: evidence from the East India Company Army. Explor. Econ. Hist. 33:141–68 [Google Scholar]
  90. Muldrew C. 2011. Food, Energy and the Creation of Industriousness: Work and Material Culture in Agrarian England, 1550–1780 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  91. Nicholas SJ, Nicholas JM. 1992. Male literacy, “deskilling,” and the Industrial Revolution. J. Interdiscip. Hist. 23:1–18 [Google Scholar]
  92. Nicholas SJ, Steckel R. 1991. Heights and living standards of English workers during the early years of industrialization. J. Econ. Hist. 51:937–57 [Google Scholar]
  93. Nuvolari A, Verspagen B. 2009. Technical choice, innovation and British steam engineering, 1800–1850. Econ. Hist. Rev. 62:685–710 [Google Scholar]
  94. Ogilvie S. 2008. Rehabilitating the guilds: a reply. Econ. Hist. Rev. 61:175–82 [Google Scholar]
  95. Overton M. 1996. Agricultural Revolution in England: The Transformation of the Agrarian Economy, 1500–1850 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  96. Reis J. 2005. Economic growth, human capital formation and consumption in Western Europe before 1800. Living Standards in the Past: New Perspectives on Well-Being in Asia and Europe Allen RC, Bengtsson T, Dribe M. 195–225 New York: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  97. Riley JC. 1994. Height, nutrition, and mortality risk reconsidered. J. Interdiscip. Hist. 24:465–92 [Google Scholar]
  98. Rosenthal J-L, Wong RB. 2011. Before and Beyond Divergence: The Politics of Economic Change in China and Europe Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  99. Rothbarth E. 1946. Causes of the superior efficiency of U.S.A. industry as compared with British industry. Econ. J. 56:383–90 [Google Scholar]
  100. Sandberg LG. 1979. The case of the impoverished sophisticate: human capital and Swedish economic growth before World War I. J. Econ. Hist. 39:225–41 [Google Scholar]
  101. Schultz TP. 2002. Wage gains associated with height as a form of health human capital. Am. Econ. Rev. 92:349–53 [Google Scholar]
  102. Schultz TP. 2005. Productive benefits of health: evidence from low-income countries. Discuss. Pap. 1482, IZA, Bonn
  103. Scrimshaw NS. 1998. Malnutrition, brain development, learning, and behavior. Nutr. Res. 18:351–79 [Google Scholar]
  104. Scrimshaw NS, Gordon JE. 1968. Malnutrition, Learning, and Behavior Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
  105. Skempton A. 2002. A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 1: 1500–1830. London: Thomas Telford
  106. Soc. Diffus. Useful Knowl 1830. The British Almanac for the Year 1830 London: Charles Knight
  107. Solar P. 1995. Poor relief and English economic development before the Industrial Revolution. Econ. Hist. Rev. 48:1–22 [Google Scholar]
  108. Temin P. 1966. Labor scarcity and the problem of American industrial efficiency in the 1850’s. J. Econ. Hist. 26:277–98 [Google Scholar]
  109. Temin P. 1971. Labor scarcity in America. J. Interdiscip. Hist. 1:251–64 [Google Scholar]
  110. Thomas B. 1985. Food supply in the United Kingdom during the Industrial Revolution. The Economics of the Industrial Revolution Mokyr J. 137–50 Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allanheld [Google Scholar]
  111. Van der Beek K. 2010. Technology-skill complementarity on the eve of the Industrial Revolution: new evidence from England (1710–1772). Work. Pap., Ben Gurion Univ., Be’er Sheva, Israel
  112. Victora CG, Adair L, Fall C, Hallal PC, Martorell R. et al. 2008. Maternal and child undernutrition: consequences for adult health and human capital. Lancet 371:340–57
  113. Villermé LR. 1829. Mémoire sur la taille de l'homme en France. Ann. Hyg. Publique Méd. Lég. 18:351–96 [Google Scholar]
  114. von Tunzelmann GN. 1994. Technology in the early nineteenth century. In The Economic History of Britain Since 1700, Vol. 1, ed. RC Floud, DN McCloskey, pp. 271–99. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  115. Walker SP, Wachs TD, Grantham-McGregor S, Black MM, Nelson CA et al. 2011. Inequality in early childhood: risk and protective factors for early child development. Lancet 378:1325–38 [Google Scholar]
  116. Wallis P. 2008. Apprenticeship and training in premodern England. J. Econ. Hist. 68:832–61 [Google Scholar]
  117. Weidner-Williams M. 1988. Infant nutrition and economic growth in Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the modern period. PhD thesis, Dep. Hist., Northwestern Univ .
  118. Weir D. 1997. Economic welfare and physical well-being in France, 1570–1990. Health and Welfare During Industrialization Steckel RH, Floud R. 161–200 Chicago, IL: Univ. Chicago Press [Google Scholar]
  119. Whaley SE, Sigman M, Neumann C, Bwibo N, Guthrie D et al. 2003. The impact of dietary intervention on the cognitive development of Kenyan school children. J. Nutr. 133:S3965–71 [Google Scholar]
  120. Wrigley EA, Davies RS, Oeppen JE, Schofield RS. 1997. English Population History from Family Reconstitution, 1580–1837 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  121. Young A. 1771. A Six Months Tour Through the North of England London: Strahan, 2nd ed..
  122. Young A. 1772. A Six Weeks Tour Through the Southern Counties of England and Wales London: Strahan, 3rd ed..
  123. Young A. 1793. Travels in France. Dublin: Cross et al.
  124. Young A. 1809. View of the Agriculture of Oxfordshire: Drawn up for the Board of Agriculture London: Richard Phillips
  125. Young A. 1929 (1790). Travels in France During the Years 1787, 1788, and 1789, ed. C Maxwell. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-economics-080213-041042
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-economics-080213-041042
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplemental Material

Supplementary Data

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error