Interesting article, but I am not sure the economics profession has the best explanation for why nations suddenly transform from a state of enduring poverty to a state of long-term economic growth. I think this is a better theory:
The question “Why Did the Industrial Revolution Happen?” is such a powerful entry point because it goes beyond the machines themselves and points toward the deeper shifts in society, labor, and resources that made that transformation possible. I think it’s especially interesting to consider how technological progress often changes who has power and opportunity, not just how people work. The human stories behind these historical shifts are often where the biggest lessons are.
This is an interesting piece Oliver, attempting to divine the causes of the Industrial Revolution. This is no easy task; the “push” and/or “pull” of labor from the farms to the cities is a complex mechanism. Economics may not be best suited to examine this.
I suggest we look at the Industrial Revolution from an “accumulated knowledge” viewpoint. We had several smaller agricultural revolutions in the proceeding millennia. These breakthroughs increased the availability of food.
Consequently, our population grew, and we had just enough food such that ~10 percent of humans could live in cities. From there, what I call the “social supercomputer” took hold.
No longer in isolation, ideas produced in the brains of these urbanites, bounced off each other, melded and molded in ways that they couldn’t before. This information exchange led to the development of heat engines.
Namely, the Newcomen steam engine, which allowed humans, for the first time, to use fossil fuels to do work. We developed an energy source far more dense, and more capable, and that didn’t compete with us. This was the key breakthrough.
We simply crossed a knowledge threshold where we unlocked a new “higher” form of energy for human benefit.
Good stuff. Love those final paragraphs.
Interesting article, but I am not sure the economics profession has the best explanation for why nations suddenly transform from a state of enduring poverty to a state of long-term economic growth. I think this is a better theory:
https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/the-five-keys-to-progress
Interesting, you might be interested by this way of endogenising technological progress:https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6CBACB4C2DFB11F5A13D3B4A5E9E2EB4/S0140525X1800211Xa.pdf/div-class-title-psychological-origins-of-the-industrial-revolution-div.pdf
For the best account of what the Industrial Revolution was, why it happened, and why it happened in England and not elsewhere, see:
Rick Szostak "The Role of Transportation in the Industrial Revolution: A Comparison of England and France"
The question “Why Did the Industrial Revolution Happen?” is such a powerful entry point because it goes beyond the machines themselves and points toward the deeper shifts in society, labor, and resources that made that transformation possible. I think it’s especially interesting to consider how technological progress often changes who has power and opportunity, not just how people work. The human stories behind these historical shifts are often where the biggest lessons are.
This is an interesting piece Oliver, attempting to divine the causes of the Industrial Revolution. This is no easy task; the “push” and/or “pull” of labor from the farms to the cities is a complex mechanism. Economics may not be best suited to examine this.
I suggest we look at the Industrial Revolution from an “accumulated knowledge” viewpoint. We had several smaller agricultural revolutions in the proceeding millennia. These breakthroughs increased the availability of food.
Consequently, our population grew, and we had just enough food such that ~10 percent of humans could live in cities. From there, what I call the “social supercomputer” took hold.
No longer in isolation, ideas produced in the brains of these urbanites, bounced off each other, melded and molded in ways that they couldn’t before. This information exchange led to the development of heat engines.
Namely, the Newcomen steam engine, which allowed humans, for the first time, to use fossil fuels to do work. We developed an energy source far more dense, and more capable, and that didn’t compete with us. This was the key breakthrough.
We simply crossed a knowledge threshold where we unlocked a new “higher” form of energy for human benefit.