Spinning the Industrial Revolution

@article{Humphries2016SpinningTI,
  title={Spinning the Industrial Revolution},
  author={Jane Humphries and Benjamin Schneider},
  journal={ERN: Economic Growth (European Economics) (Topic)},
  year={2016}
}
The prevailing explanation for why the industrial revolution occurred first in Britain during the last quarter of the eighteenth century is Allen's ‘high wage economy’ view, which claims that the high cost of labour relative to capital and fuel incentivized innovation and the adoption of new techniques. This article presents new empirical evidence on hand spinning before the industrial revolution and demonstrates that there was no such ‘high wage economy’ in spinning, which was a leading sector… Expand
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