The Industrial Revolution

The century after 1750, saw the industrial revolution proper: invention of steam engine, spinning jenny, power loom, hydraulic press, railroad locomotive, water turbine and the electric motor--as well as the hot-air balloon, gas lighting, photography and sewing machine.

However the industrial revolution wasn't just a burst of inventions. It was an economic transformation which revolutionized the process of invention as well. Since 1850 the pace of innovation and invention has further accelerated: steelmaking, internal combustion engine, pasteurization, typewriter, cash register, telephone, automobile, radio, airplane, tank, limited-access highway, photocopier, computer, pacemaker, nuclear weapons, superconductivity, genetic fingerprinting, and human genome map. The coming of industrial revolution marks the beginning of the era of modern economic growth: the era in that it's expected that new technological leaps will routinely revolutionize industries and produce major improvements in living standards.

The fact that Britain was center of the industrial revolution meant that for a century--from 1800 to 1900--British levels of industrial productivity were the highest in world and British standards of living were the highest in world as well. It also meant that English (rather than Hindi, French, Spanish or Mandarin) became the world's de facto second language. However the technologies of industrial revolution didn't remain narrowly-confined to Britain. Their spread was rapid to Western Europe and United States. Their spread was less rapid-however still relatively thorough and complete--to southern and Eastern Europe and--most interesting perhaps--Japan.

Perhaps the most significant lesson to draw from this short look back at economic history is that standard growth models of economists apply to a relatively narrow slice of time.