An alternative outline of topics for Industrialisation in Britain and France

(Back to course homepage)

1. Introduction

Data on real wages, gdp p.c. (outcomes)
Data on structural change (cause/mechanism)
More detailed indicators of specialisation
More indicators of living standards (consequences)
European comparisons

2. Causes of industrialisation: demand

Poverty, inequality
Market integration - transport infrastructure, internal customs ...
Consumer culture, the industrious revolution
Foreign trade
    Empire
    Mercantilism - navigation acts, tariffs
    Fiscal-military state
War, revolution disruption?
Urbanisation and induced agrarian change?

3. Causes of industrialisation: supply

Invention
    Patents
    Enlightenment
    Factor prices
Entrepreneurship / culture
Institutions
    Property rights
    Guilds
    Financial revolution
    Limited government
    Enclosure
Trade/empire
    Inputs of cheap food, raw materials like cotton
    Profits of colonial trade, slavery, influence of merchants on gov't.
Infrastructure investment
War, revolution disruption ?
Markets - credit, labour, products / integration, competition

4. Consequences of industrialisation

Standards of living - heights, health, mortality, consumption, real wages
Demography
Poverty
Poor relief
Child labour
Urbanisation