Practice question · Select all that apply
Which explanations have been offered for why industrialisation began in Britain rather than elsewhere?
Hints
- Three of these name real scholarly positions; the fourth is a sweeping claim no historian makes.
- Pomeranz, Allen and Mokyr respectively.
Show the answer
- A. Cheap accessible coal combined with land-saving colonial imports
- B. An industrial Enlightenment linking artisans to natural philosophers
- C. High wages and cheap energy, making labour-saving machines profitable there
Why
The three live explanations are not mutually exclusive and each has been attacked: Pomeranz for underrating institutions, Allen for the wage data he relies on, Mokyr for the difficulty of measuring knowledge. What none of them supports is a simple story of British exceptionalism in culture or regulation.
Practise Demographic and Economic Change
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