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The Industrial Revolution: A Cliometric Perspective

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Handbook of Cliometrics

Abstract

The Industrial Revolution in England represented most importantly a change in the growth rate of the efficiency of the economy from close to zero in the years before 1800 to rates typical of those for modern England or the USA by 1860. This paper details the overall change in productivity growth rates and shows also how this created an even greater increase in income per capita from induced capital accumulation. It also details the sectoral sources of this growth. Lastly, the paper considers how this fundamental economic transformation might be explained as a function of institutions, ideas, demography, and human capital investments.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The contributors here included Deane and Cole (1962), Crafts (1985), Crafts and Harley (1992), and Broadberry et al. (2014).

  2. 2.

    These estimates tend to assume large increases in agricultural output so that implied efficiency growth in agriculture is at a faster rate for the economy as a whole during the Industrial Revolution. Evidence from prices, wages, land rents, and capital returns in agriculture does not support such an optimistic assessment.

  3. 3.

    Clark (2005).

  4. 4.

    This is because a significant drag on the growth of output per person in the Industrial Revolution era was the decline in farmland per person. Since 1870, the landshare in all incomes became so modest that this drag became unimportant.

  5. 5.

    For a more detailed explanation, see Clark (2007a, pp. 379–382).

  6. 6.

    Another procedure to measure productivity growth at the sectoral level is to treat the major inputs in the same way as capital, labor, and land and measure efficiency growth as

    $$ {g}_{A_j}=-{g}_{p_j} + {a}_j{g}_{r_j} + {a}_j{p}_{kj}+{b}_j{g}_{w_j}+{c}_j{g}_{s_j} + d{g}_{m_j} $$

    where d is the share of purchased inputs in all costs and m indexes the price of such inputs. In this case,

    $$ {g}_A= {\displaystyle \sum }{\varphi}_j{g}_{Aj} $$

    where φ is the ratio of sales in each industry to national income. \( {\displaystyle \sum {\varphi}_j}>1 \) since some output is used as input into other industries and not for consumption or investment. This approach to measuring Industrial Revolution productivity advance was pioneered by McCloskey (1981).

  7. 7.

    Bresnahan and Trajtenberg (1996).

  8. 8.

    Clark and Jacks (2007).

  9. 9.

    By 1828, three-quarters of mines in the Newcastle area were still less than 600 f. deep. Clark and Jacks (2007, Table 2).

  10. 10.

    Wrigley (1988), Pomeranz (2000).

  11. 11.

    Vries (2001).

  12. 12.

    For more details, see Clark and Jacks (2007).

  13. 13.

    Wicker (1957).

  14. 14.

    Overton (1985, Table 1).

  15. 15.

    Overton (1991, pp. 309–310).

  16. 16.

    Clark (1998), Clark and Jamelske (2005).

  17. 17.

    This is also the analysis of Mokyr (2003, 2012).

  18. 18.

    Aglionby (1669, pp. 3–4).

  19. 19.

    The discussion below is largely based on De Vries and Van der Woude (1997), though see also Freist (2012) and de Vries (2000).

  20. 20.

    De Vries and Van der Woude (1997, p. 710).

  21. 21.

    By 1665 the State of Holland was able to reduce rates on its long term debt to 4 %.

  22. 22.

    De Vries (1978).

  23. 23.

    See Eq. 3 above.

  24. 24.

    Allen (2009).

  25. 25.

    Clark (1996, 2007a, b) criticizes this approach.

  26. 26.

    The recent rise of China is, however, an exception to the general association of growth and democracy.

  27. 27.

    The Dutch Act of Abjuration of 1581 has been claimed by some to be the precursor of the Declaration of Independence of the USA of 1776.

  28. 28.

    See Prak (1997), van Zanden and Prak (2006, pp. 121–122).

  29. 29.

    There have been institutionalist arguments, however, about why Hansa institutions still deviated from those necessary for modern growth. See Lindberg (2009).

  30. 30.

    This problem continued into at least the seventeenth century in England, where publishers quite freely pirated the works of authors.

  31. 31.

    See Long (1991, pp. 853–857).

  32. 32.

    Ganea and Pattloch (2005, pp. 205–206).

  33. 33.

    De Vries and van der Woude (1997, pp. 345–348).

  34. 34.

    Khan (2008).

  35. 35.

    The industrialization of the United States created much greater private and family fortunes.

  36. 36.

    Jacob (2013, p. 8).

  37. 37.

    Mokyr (1999).

  38. 38.

    Jacob (2014, pp. 82–84). See also Jacob (1997).

  39. 39.

    Shineberg (1971, p. 65).

  40. 40.

    Townsend (1983, p. 6).

  41. 41.

    Wrigley et al. (1997, p. 313).

  42. 42.

    Hopkins (1966, p. 249).

  43. 43.

    France was the only country to experience a decline in fertility starting in the late eighteenth century, and France of course lagged Britain in terms of the onset of modern growth.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Gregory Clark

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  1. Gregory Clark
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Correspondence to Gregory Clark .

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  1. BETA/CNRS, University of Strasbourg, Institute for Advanced Study, Strasbourg, France

    Claude Diebolt

  2. University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA

    Michael Haupert

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Clark, G. (2016). The Industrial Revolution: A Cliometric Perspective. In: Diebolt, C., Haupert, M. (eds) Handbook of Cliometrics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40406-1_10

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