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Theories of Technological Progress and the British Textile Industry from Kay to Cartwright

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2010

P. K. O'Brien ,
T. Griffiths  and
P. A. Hunt
P. K. O'Brien
Affiliation:
Institute of Historical Research (London), and University of Edinburgh
T. Griffiths
Affiliation:
Institute of Historical Research (London), and University of Edinburgh
P. A. Hunt
Affiliation:
Institute of Historical Research (London), and University of Edinburgh
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Abstract

The cotton textile industry remains central to all accounts of the first industrial revolution. Innovations in this period precipitated an extraordinary acceleration in the growth of output and a steep decline in the cost of producing all varieties of cloth. In this paper we outline an explanation through an analysis of the community of inventors responsable for the technological transformation, which enables us to offer some new generalizations of the pace and pattern of the inventive activity in this period.

Resumen

La industria textil británica continuá en el centro del debate sobre la revolución industrial. Las innovaciones técnicas en el período produjeron una aceleración extraordinaria del crecimiento del output y una considerable reducción de los precios de los tejidos. En este trabajo presentamos un estudio de la comunidad de los inventores responsables de la transformación tecnológica, lo que nos permite alcanzar una serie de conclusiones nuevas sobre el ritmo y dirección de la actividad innovadora durante la revolución industrial.

Type
Artículos
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , December 1996 , pp. 533 - 555
Copyright
Copyright © Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 1996

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References

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