The emergence of a mechanized textile industry in Norway was a component of wider industrial growth in that country. But this in turn was, of course, part of a general spread of industrialization throughout Europe from the late eighteenth century. This process was, arguably, the decisive historical event of the modern period, for it involved far more than changes in production methods and levels of output, important though these were. The industrialization process also involved, perhaps was ultimately caused by, major changes in social and economic organization, and it led to significant shifts in regional structures, patterns and levels of trade, and the distribution of both inter- and intra-national political power. Moreover, this process was not a once and for all affair. On the contrary, it installed, throughout Europe and North America, a new economic regime within which the emergence and spread of new technologies have been pervasive. This large-scale historical process has given rise to two broad areas of inquiry relevant to this study. One is historical: the economic history of the industrialization of nations and regions. The other is analytic: the economics of technological change.

Broadly speaking, the literature relevant to early industrialization and the international diffusion of new technologies falls into three categories:

1. Economic histories of the spread of industrialization, or reflections on the problem of industrialization from an historical standpoint. Such works are typically wide in scope, examining all of Western Europe, and frequently including discussion of Russia and Eastern Europe.