"A powerful account of how the complex mercantile and military relationships between the British, Dutch, and American territories made the Industrial Revolution possible. Between 1500 and 1800, the North Sea region overtook the Mediterranean as the most dynamic part of the world. At its core the...

We measure technological progress in oceanic shipping by using a large database of daily log entries from ships of the British and Dutch navies and East India Companies to estimate daily sailing speed in different wind conditions from 1750 to 1850. Against the consensus, dating back to North...