The Making of the Modern World

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The Making of the Modern World

• Wednesday 27 October 9-10am
• THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION STAGES
• Tutor Hilary Marland
• hilary.marland_at_warwick.ac.uk

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• The Industrial Revolution
• Different Explanations
• Explanation 1. Until the 1970s (in particular c.
  1955-75) Economic Growth
• - key sectors (esp. cotton textiles)
• factory production
• use of new technologies
• Explanation 2. From the mid 1970s to the mid
  1990s Manufactures
• a wider range of sectors
• the continuity with pre-industrial
  manufacturing (manufactures)
• consumption
• two new concepts - proto-industrialisation
• industrious revolution

David Cannadine, The Present and the Past in the
English Industrial Revolution 1800-1900, Past
and Present, 108 (1984), pp. 131-72.

• Exp. 3. Since the mid 1990s
• the IR in a more global perspective,
• new concept of divergence

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Explanation 3. Since the mid 1990s The Global
Re-interpretation of the Industrial
Revolution This has been brought about by a.
The industrial decline of Britain and most of
Europe (the locations of the first IR) b. The
industrialisation of Asia, especially China and
India.
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Explanation 3. Since the mid 1990s The
industrial decline of Britain and most of Europe
Industry accounted for 40 of the British
economy in 1900 but only 20 in 1990. The
Industrial cities of the Midlands and the North
of England declined in the early 1990s but they
revived in the late 1990s thanks to financial and
consumer services and outsourcing within a global
economy Historians asked - what part was played
in the history of industrialisation by Britains
connections with the wider world - the
relationship between the IR and Western dominion
over the world
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Explanation 3. Since the mid 1990s The
industrialisation of Asia (China and India)
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Was this an achievement contingent upon a prior
superiority in economy, mind or culture, or was
it mere accident? why did Europe industrialise
and grow rich and Asia did not? And this question
indirectly asks why is Asia industrialising
now? de-Europeanise of de-Anglicise the IR  
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Explanation 3. Since the mid 1990s (a) The Lost
Opportunities of China

• David Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
  (1998)
• Europe had only seven of the worlds twenty-five
  largest cities in 1600 and only six in 1700.
• Before 1500 other parts of the world apart from
  Europe had wealth and knowledge far more advanced
  than Europe.
• - The 16th and 17th century voyages of discovery
  which formed the lead up to European
  industrialisation
•   - the Chinese turned inwards towards a land
  Empire
• - in Europe the voyages of discovery opened
  trading opportunities which provided the lead-in
  to industrialisation.

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Explanation 3. Since the mid 1990s (a) The Lost
Opportunities of China

• Andre Gunder Frank, Re-Orient (Berkeley, 1997)
  argues that Asia was the centre of the world
  until 1500
• Chris Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World
  (Cambridge, 2004)
• it was European ships and commercial companies,
  not Asian and African producers of slaves,
  spices, calicoes or porcelains which were able to
  capture the greatest value added as world trade
  expanded in the eighteenth century and adds that
  Europe connected, subjugated and made tributary
  other peoples industrious revolutions.

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Explanation 3. Since the mid 1990s (b) Global
Luxury and Consumption

• Importance of Asian luxuries and exotic American
  foodstuffs
• These were stimuli to European consumer goods
  industries
• See Maxine Berg, In Pursuit of Luxury Global
  History and British Consumer Goods in the
  Eighteenth Century  Past and Present 182 (Feb.
  2004 ), pp. 85-142

Maxine Berg, Luxury and Pleasure in
Eighteenth-Century Britain (2005), chap. 2
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Explanation 3. Since the mid 1990s (c) The
Great Divergence
Europe moved from a common path of economic
development to a new, higher level. Europe
industrialised while China, but also India and
other places around the world did not. Europe
experienced a Great Divergence thanks to -
abundant supplies of coal - presence of colonial
markets. Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence
China, Europe and the Making of the Modern World
Economy (2000).
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7. Why was Britain first?

• Comparative advantage in exportables
• - Britain was successfully exporting part of its
  industrial production (60 of British cotton
  output was exported compared to 10 in France)
• 2. International specialisation
• - colonial markets were particularly important
  and were dominated by Britain
• 3. War and economic protection
• - Britain did not bear the burden of physical
  destruction
• - but the country was heavily taxed to pay for
  the army and navy
• - it was successful at the end of the
  Napoleonic wars.

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8. The First Industrial Revolution and the
Second Industrial Revolution

• Technological achievement in the First Industrial
  Revolution according to Landes
• The substitution of human energy with machines -
  rapid, regular, precise and tireless
• 2. The substitution of animate with inanimate
  sources of power - steam power for animal, wind
  and water power
• 3. The use of new and more abundant raw
  materials - substitution of mineral for
  vegetable or animal substances - change from a
  wood to a coal fuel economy

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Table 1. GDP per Capita in some of the major industrial countries, 1820-1913 (in 1985 US ) Table 1. GDP per Capita in some of the major industrial countries, 1820-1913 (in 1985 US ) Table 1. GDP per Capita in some of the major industrial countries, 1820-1913 (in 1985 US ) Table 1. GDP per Capita in some of the major industrial countries, 1820-1913 (in 1985 US ) Table 1. GDP per Capita in some of the major industrial countries, 1820-1913 (in 1985 US )
1820 1870 1890 1913
United Kingdom 1,405 2,610 3,279 4,024
France 1,052 1,571 1,941 2,734
Germany 937 1,300 1,727 2,606
Italy 960 1,210 1,355 2,087
United States 1,048 2,247 3,106 4,854
Canada 1,347 1,662 3,560
Japan 588 620 813 1,114
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8. The First Industrial Revolution and the
Second Industrial Revolution

• new materials - steel, chemicals Germany leads
• new energy - steam turbine, gas, petroleum,
  electricity Germany leads
• mechanisation machine tools, interchangeable
  parts U.S. leads

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9. Britain Falling Behind
Table 2. The world Manufacturing Production, 1870-1911 (in ) Table 2. The world Manufacturing Production, 1870-1911 (in ) Table 2. The world Manufacturing Production, 1870-1911 (in ) Table 2. The world Manufacturing Production, 1870-1911 (in ) Table 2. The world Manufacturing Production, 1870-1911 (in ) Table 2. The world Manufacturing Production, 1870-1911 (in ) Table 2. The world Manufacturing Production, 1870-1911 (in )
In 1870 1881-1885 1896-1900 1906-1910 1913  
Great Britain 31,8 26,6 19,5 14,7 14,0  
France 10,3 8,6 7,1 6,4 6,4  
Germany 13,2 13,9 16,6 15,9 15,7  
Italy 2,4 2,4 2,7 3,1 2,7  
Belgium 2,9 2,5 2,2 2,0 2,1  
Russia 3,7 3,4 5,0 5,0 5,5  
US 23,3 28,6 30,1 35,3 35,8  
Japan - - 0,6 1,0 1,2  
Others 12,4 14,0 16,2 16,6 16,6  
World 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0  
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9. Britain Falling Behind

• Why did Britain fall behind Germany and the US in
  the period 1870-1914?
• The markets of empire
• Competitive advantage in low productivity industry

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10. The Modernisation of the Germany Economy

• 1. The State was proactive
• 2. High levels of investments support of banks
• 3. Welfare state workers housing, social
  insurance, pensions, etc.
• The result was
• 1891-1911 the German population increased from
  49 million to 65 million.
• Output increased from 23 per person to 37 per
  person a year
• Trade increased by 200

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Conclusion

• Was the IR the beginning of modernity?