The Making of the Modern WorldWednesday 28 October 2015, 9-10am

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: CONSEQUENCES

Tutor: Giorgio Riellog.riello@warwick.ac.uk

David Cannadine, “The Present and the Past in the English Industrial Revolution 1800-1900”, Past and Present, 108 (1984), pp. 131-72.

Exp. 3. Since the mid 1990s:- the IR in a more global perspective, - new concept of ‘divergence’

Explanation 2. Manufactures

Alternative smaller-scale units that co-existed with those factories were not so primitive during the IR

Maxine Berg, The Age of Manufactures (1985; 2nd edn. 1994).

Explanation 2. Manufactures

Concept 1: Proto-industrialization

Proto-industry is industrial production in small units mostly in the countryside to produce goods to be sold in distant market.

The Proto-industrial model was developed by Franklin Mendels and developed by Kriedte, Medick e Schlumbohm.

The model contained three elements:•a strong link between agriculture and industry.•production that was co-ordinated by so-called merchant-entrepreneurs.•an industry dependent on long-distance markets.

Concept 2: Industrious Revolution

Jan de Vries, The Industrious Revolution (Cambridge, 2008).

The ‘industrious revolution’ formulation is important because:

• it emphasises labour rather than technology as the key element of industrial production

• it extends the chronologies of the IR backwards in time• it connects consumption and production.

Exp. 3. Since the mid 1990s: The Global Re-interpretation of the IR

This has been brought about by:

a. The industrial decline of Britain and most of Europe (the places of the first IR)

b. The industrialization of Asia, exp. China and India.

Exp. 3. Since the mid 1990s: The industrial decline of Britain and most of Europe

Industry accounted for 40% of the British economy in 1900 but only 20% in 1990.

The Industrial cities of the Midlands and the North of England declined in the early 1990s … but they revived in the late 1990s thanks to financial and consumer services and outsourcing within a global economy

Historians asked:- What part was played in the history of industrialization by Britain’s connections with the wider world- the relationship between the IR and Western dominion over the world

Exp. 3. Since the mid 1990s: The industrialisation of Asia (China and India)

Was this an achievement contingent upon a prior superiority in economy, mind or culture, or was it mere accident?

‘why did Europe industrialise and grow rich and Asia did not? And this question indirectly asks ‘why is Asia industrialising now?’

de-Europeanise of de-Anglicise the IR 

•Chris Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World (Cambridge, 2004)

‘it was European ships and commercial companies, not Asian and African producers of slaves, spices, calicoes or porcelains which were able to capture the greatest ‘value added’ as world trade expanded in the eighteenth century’ and adds that ‘Europe connected, subjugated and made tributary other peoples’ “industrious revolutions”’.

Exp. 3. Since the mid 1990s: (a) The Lost Opportunities of China

Exp. 3. Since the mid 1990s: (b) Global Luxury and Consumption• Importance of Asian luxuries

and exotic American foodstuffs

• These were stimula to European consumer goods industries

See: Maxine Berg, ‘In Pursuit of Luxury: Global History and British Consumer Goods in the Eighteenth Century’ Past and Present 182 (Feb. 2004 ), pp. 85-142 Maxine Berg, Luxury and Pleasure in Eighteenth-Century Britain (2005), chap. 2

Exp. 3. Since the mid 1990s: (c) The ‘Great Divergence’

7. Why was Britain first?

• Britain had a very low share of the population in Britain occupied in agriculture; France by contrast remained a very agricultural society.

• As late as 1840 the output per worker in France was only 60% of that of England: Britain was much more productive

• And finally that population growth was gradual in France, while in England it rose rapidly.

7. Why was Britain first?

1. Comparative advantage in exportable commodities- Britain was successfully exporting part of its industrial production (60% of British cotton output was exported compared to 10% in France)

2. International specialization- colonial markets were particularly important and were dominated by Britain

3. War and economic protection- Britain did not bear the burden of physical destruction- but the country was heavily taxed to pay for the army and navy- it was successful at the end of the Napoleonic wars.

8. The First Industrial Revolution and the Second Industrial Revolution Technological achievement in the First Industrial Revolution

according to Landes:

1. The substitution of human energy with machines - rapid, regular, precise and tireless.

2. The substitution of animate with inanimate sources of power - steam power for animal, wind and water power

3. The use of new and more abundant raw materials - substitution of mineral for vegetable or animal substances - change from a wood to a coal fuel economy

Table 1. GDP per Capita in some of the major industrial countries, 1820-1913 (in 1985 US $)

1820 1870 1890 1913United Kingdom 1,405 2,610 3,279 4,024France 1,052 1,571 1,941 2,734Germany 937 1,300 1,727 2,606Italy 960 1,210 1,355 2,087United States 1,048 2,247 3,106 4,854Canada 1,347 1,662 3,560Japan 588 620 813 1,114

8. The First Industrial Revolution and the Second Industrial Revolution

• new materials - steel, chemicals – Germany leads

• new energy - steam turbine, gas, petroleum, electricity – Germany leads

• mechanisation – machine tools, interchangeable parts – U.S. leads

8. The First Industrial Revolution and the Second Industrial Revolution

• interchangebility of parts, … the ways in which products were composed an assembled

• ‘scientific management’ of productive lines

• In the Second Industrial Revolution, the Americans then by the Germans took the lead

9. Britain Falling BehindTable 2. The world Manufacturing Production, 1870-1911 (in %)

In % 1870 1881-1885

1896-1900

1906-1910

1913

Great Britain

31,8 26,6 19,5 14,7 14,0

France 10,3 8,6 7,1 6,4 6,4 Germany 13,2 13,9 16,6 15,9 15,7 Italy 2,4 2,4 2,7 3,1 2,7 Belgium 2,9 2,5 2,2 2,0 2,1 Russia 3,7 3,4 5,0 5,0 5,5 US 23,3 28,6 30,1 35,3 35,8 Japan - - 0,6 1,0 1,2 Others 12,4 14,0 16,2 16,6 16,6 World 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0

9. Britain Falling Behind

Why did Britain fall behind Germany and the US in the period 1870-1914?

•The markets of empire

•Competitive advantage in low productivity industry

10. The Modernisation of the Germany Economy

1. The State was proactive2. High levels of investments – support of banks3. Welfare state – worker’s housing, social insurance, pensions,

etc.

The result was:• 1891-1911 – the German population increased from 49

million to 65 million.• Output increased from £23 per person to £37 per person a

year• Trade increased by 200%

Conclusion

Was the IR the beginning of modernity?