SOURCE: "The Pre-History of the Nineteenth Century," in Europe, America, and the Wider World: Essays on the Economic History of Western Capitalism, Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, 1984, pp. 15-57.

In this excerpt from an essay originally published in 1979, Parker discusses the spread of industrialization throughout Western Europe during the first half of the nineteenth century, emphasizing the economic conditions and the technological advances of the period.

The Spread of Modern Industry11

The spread of mechanical techniques through industries and through geographical regions is a pair of processes with many common characteristics. The mechanisation of a new industry required adaptation of the power and inventions to harness power to specific operations. The spread of a given machine technique, e.g. mechanical spinning, from one region required interested entrepreneurs, favourable factor cost conditions, suitable government policy, and supplies of capital and workers adaptable to the machine process. It too required minor...