Sunday, May 31, 2009

Industrial Revolution. Why Europe and not China? Why Britain?

Two new explanations:
-Hans-Joachim Voth (et alii) says that the reason lies in the emergence of the European Marriage Pattern . (BTW, Voth creates amazing papers' titles)
- Robert Allen asserts that trade created the conditions for the British Industrial Revolution: high wages and cheap energy. (The book with the full story is here. The Economist reviews it here).

1 comment:

kmann said...

Industrial Revolution: why Europe? Capitalism, that's why. More specifically, the movement away from Mercantilism toward Capitalism in England laid the foundation for a tremendous increase in technological and living standards, and not just for the rich as some would like for others to believe. In fact, a large majority of the world's population owe their very existence to Capitalism, the freedom to do what you will with what is yours. However unfortunate, the impetus since Keynes has been toward resuscitating Mercantilism within the framework of central planning manipulating market conditions.