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, slavery wealth is strongly correlated with economic development - slave-holding areas are less agricultural, closer to cotton … mills, and have higher property wealth. We rationalize these findings using a dynamic spatial model, where slavery … overseas slave wealth. Overall, our findings are consistent with the view that slavery wealth accelerated Britain's industrial …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013388807
There are two views of the British Industrial Revolution in the literature today. The more traditional description, represented by the views of Ashton and Landes, sees the Industrial Revolution as a broad change in the British economy and society. This broad view of the Industrial Revolution has...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012473390
affect its dominant values, we examine the case of the movement for the abolition of slavery in the late 18th and early 19th … values and weak economic interest in the status quo to mobilize for change. Using data on anti-slavery petitions, membership … parliamentary speeches to show that industrialists were relatively less reliant on income from slavery and were characterized by a …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014372465
, and the transition to skill-biased technological change. The simulated model tracks British industrialization in the 18th …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012464163
During the Industrial Revolution technological progress and innovation became the main drivers of economic growth. But why was Britain the technological leader? We argue that one hitherto little recognized British advantage was the supply of highly skilled, mechanically able craftsmen who were...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012461665
How did Britain sustain faster rates of economic growth than comparable European countries, such as France, during the Industrial Revolution? We argue that Britain possessed an important but underappreciated innovation advantage: British inventors worked in technologies that were more central...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10015056202
During the Second Industrial Revolution, 1860-1900, many new technologies, including electricity, were invented. These inventions launched a transition to a new economy, a period of about 70 years of ongoing, rapid technical change. After this revolution began, however, several decades passed...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012470039
We construct a simple model where political elites may block technological and institutional development, because of a 'political replacement effect'. Innovations often erode elites' incumbency advantage, increasing the likelihood that they will be replaced. Fearing replacement, political elites...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012469884
Why did the country that borrowed the most industrialize first? Earlier research has viewed the explosion of debt in 18th century Britain as either detrimental, or as neutral for economic growth. In this paper, we argue instead that Britain's borrowing boom was beneficial. The massive issuance...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012457387
David Ricardo initially believed machinery would help workers but revised his opinion, likely based on the impact of automation in the textile industry. Despite cotton textiles becoming one of the largest sectors in the British economy, real wages for cotton weavers did not rise for decades. As...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014544695