Practice question · Multiple choice
Allen argues the spinning jenny was invented in Lancashire rather than Bengal, where cotton skills were older and deeper. What made Britain the profitable place to mechanise?
Hints
- A machine substitutes energy for labour. Ask what the two cost in each place.
- Would you buy a labour-saving device where labour is nearly free?
Show the answer
C. Its unusual price ratio: high wages and cheap coal
Why
Invention responds to relative prices, and the jenny paid for itself only where wages were high relative to fuel, the same device was a bad investment in Bengal. It reframes the Industrial Revolution as an induced response to a local price structure rather than a burst of British genius.
Practise The Industrial Revolution
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More questions on The Industrial Revolution
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