Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the second edition
- 1 The starting-point
- 2 The demographic revolution
- 3 The agricultural revolution
- 4 The commercial revolution
- 5 The transport revolution
- 6 The cotton industry
- 7 The iron industry
- 8 The sources of innovation
- 9 The role of labour
- 10 The role of capital
- 11 The role of the banks
- 12 The adoption of free trade
- 13 The role of government
- 14 Economic growth and economic cycles
- 15 Standards of living
- 16 The achievement
- Guide to further reading
- Subject index
- Index of authors cited
2 - The demographic revolution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the second edition
- 1 The starting-point
- 2 The demographic revolution
- 3 The agricultural revolution
- 4 The commercial revolution
- 5 The transport revolution
- 6 The cotton industry
- 7 The iron industry
- 8 The sources of innovation
- 9 The role of labour
- 10 The role of capital
- 11 The role of the banks
- 12 The adoption of free trade
- 13 The role of government
- 14 Economic growth and economic cycles
- 15 Standards of living
- 16 The achievement
- Guide to further reading
- Subject index
- Index of authors cited
Summary
Although there is still room for considerable differences of opinion concerning the exact timing of the crucial turning-points in British economic development, there is a general consensus among economic historians that sustained growth—modern economic growth some would say—can be traced back to the middle decades of the eighteenth century. Before then, economic change was generally slow (when not precipitated by non-economic catastrophes); and standards of living tended to fluctuate violently in the short run and to rise (or decline) imperceptibly in the long run. Afterwards change became continuous, evident and systematic—it was part of an industrialization process which was as apparent to contemporaries as it is to us in retrospect: and national output, population and incomes per head began to grow, at varying rates it is true, but with only short-term interruptions. Economic growth—sustained and perceptible—became part of the normal order of things.
Associated with the industrial revolution in time, and in a complex relationship of cause and effect, was a demographic revolution the mechanics of which are still not fully understood. One thing is clear however. One of the features that distinguishes the modern industrial (or industrializing) economy from its predecessors in the chain of economic development is that it involves sustained long-term growth in both population and output.
The rate of growth of population, of course, depends basically on the rate of natural increase, that is, on the difference between birth rates and death rates; and there are certain biological and physical limits to the extent to which these are likely to vary.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The First Industrial Revolution , pp. 20 - 36Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1980