The term industrial revolution is of fundamental importance in the study of economic history and economic development. The phrase is, however, full of pitfalls for the unwary, partly because it has been used with several different meanings, and has, of course, generated a good deal of controversy.
An early use of ‘industrial revolution’ referred to what are best seen as periods of industrial growth with quite limited implications for overall economic development. Well-known examples include Carus-Wilson (1941) on the thirteenth and Nef (1932) on the sixteenth centuries. This usage is now seen as unhelpful and is generally disparaged.
Still very much extant is thinking of ‘industrial revolution’ in the sense of technological revolution, as does Freeman (1987). This approach is often used by researchers concentrating on science and technology to describe developments which they feel had widespread economic and social ramifications. This school of thought envisages successive technological or (if you will) industrial revolutions. These would typically include the famous inventions of the period 1750–1850 based on steam power, the so-called second industrial revolution of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries involving new chemicals, electricity and automobiles, and the information technology revolution of the years after 1970.
Among economists and economic historians ‘industrial revolution’ most frequently relates to a fundamental part of the experience of economic development, namely the spread of industrialization in the economy as a whole. Since Kuznets (1966), this has been associated with the onset of modern economic growth. Econometric research has confirmed the existence of systematic patterns of change in the structure of economies as real incomes rise (Chenery and Syrquin 1975), although it is widely recognized that countries have not followed identical routes to modernity (O’Brien 1986). Industrialization is typically accompanied by acceleration in economic growth, increases in investment in both physical and human capital, and improvements in technology and urbanization.
Perhaps the most common use of all refers to the classic and pioneering example of industrialization which occurred in Britain during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, famously described by Rostow (1960) as featuring a spectacular take-off into self-sustained growth. It now seems more probable that this episode was characterized by particularly rapid changes in economic structure but quite slow growth (Crafts 1985). In this sense the British industrial revolution not only subsumed technological innovation in industry but also embraced much wider organizational changes in agriculture, finance, commerce, trade, etc. Indeed the term ‘industrial revolution’ is a metaphor which should not be taken literally in this context.
A large literature has sought the ultimate causes of the first industrial revolution and has produced a great variety of hypotheses, many of which are unpersuasive, although hard completely to refute (Hartwell 1967). What is generally accepted is that British industrialization resulted from prowess in technology and investment but ultimately depended on the institutions of a market economy which had their origins in the distant past (Mokyr 1993). While the structural changes and their implications for living standards can fairly be described as revolutionary, this does not detract from the point that the industrial revolution was the culmination of evolutionary changes which had been proceeding for centuries.
N.F.R.Crafts
London School of Economics and Political Science
References
Carus-Wilson, E.M. (1941) ‘An industrial revolution of the thirteenth century’, Economic History Review 11.
Chenery, H.B. and Syrquin, M. (1975) Patterns of Development, 1950–1970, London.
Crafts, N.F.R. (1985) British Economic Growth during the Industrial Revolution, Oxford.
Freeman, C. (1987) Technology Policy and Economic Performance, London.
Hartwell, R.M. (ed.) (1967) The Causes of the Industrial Revolution in England, London.
Kuznets, S. (1966) Modern Economic Growth: Rate, Structure and Spread, New Haven, CT.
Mokyr, J. (ed.) (1993) The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Perspective, Oxford.
Nef, J. (1932) The Rise of the British Coal Industry, 2 vols, London.
O’Brien, P.K. (1986) ‘Do we have a typology for the study of European industrialization in the nineteenth century?’, Journal of European Economic History 15.
Rostow, W.W. (1960) The Stages of Economic Growth, Cambridge, UK.
Further reading
Ashton, T.S. (1948) The Industrial Revolution, 1760 1830, London.
Maddison, A. (1982) Phases of Capitalist Development, Oxford.
