Reinventing the Economic History of Industrialisation

by Kristine Bruland (Editor), Anne Gerritsen (Editor), Pat Hudson (Editor), Giorgio Riello (Editor)

Overview

The Industrial Revolution is central to the teaching of economic history. It has also been key to historical research on the commercial expansion of Western Europe, the rise of factories, coal and iron production, the proletarianization of labour, and the birth and worldwide spread of industrial capitalism. However, perspectives on the Industrial Revolution have changed significantly in recent years. The interdisciplinary approach of Reinventing the Economic History of Industrialisation - with contributions on the history of consumption, material culture, and cultural histories of science and technology - offers a more global perspective, arguing for an interpretation of the industrial revolution based on global interactions that made technological innovation and the spread of knowledge possible. Through this new lens, it becomes clear that industrialising processes started earlier and lasted longer than previously understood. Reflecting on the major topics of concern for economic historians over the past generation, Reinventing the Economic History of Industrialisation brings this area of study up to date and points the way forward.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780228000907
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	03/26/2020
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Kristine Bruland is professor emeritus at the University of Oslo. Anne Gerritsen teaches the history of China and global history at the University of Warwick, and the history of Asian art at the University of Leiden. Pat Hudson is emeritus professor of economic history at Cardiff University and honorary vice-president of the Economic History Society. Giorgio Riello is chair of early modern global history at the European University Institute and professor of global history and culture at the University of Warwick.

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures ix

Reinventing the Economic History of Industrialisation: An Introduction Kristine Bruland Anne Gerritsen Pat Hudson Giorgio Riello 3

Part 1 The Age of Manufactures: Knowledge, Making, and the Organisation of Production

1 Could Artisans Have Caused the Industrial Revolution? Morgan Kelly Joel Mokyr Cormac Ó Gráda 25

2 'What Is Technology?' An Enquiry into the Science of the Arts at the Dawn of Industrialisation Liliane Hilaire-Pérez 44

3 Silence and Secrecy in Britain's Eighteenth-Century Ceramics Industry Kate Smith 59

4 Is Small Beautiful? Workshop Organisation, Technology, and Production in South India, 1700-1960 David Washbrook 72

5 An Outlook 'wrapped up in flannel': The Wool Textile Industry in Wales in the Early Twentieth Century Pat Hudson 87

Part 2 The Age of Machinery: Technology, Human Capital, and Political Economy

6 Rethinking Protoindustry: Human Capital and the Rise of Modern Industry Jan de Vries 107

7 Machinery, Labour Absorption, and Small Producer Capitalism in the Comparative History of Industrialisation Osamu Saito 127

8 The Mechanisation of English Cotton Textile Production and the Industrial Revolution Patrick Karl O'Brien 141

9 An Automatic Technology in British Industrialisation Kristine Bruland Keith Smith 161

Part 3 The Age of Luxury: Consumption, Imagination, and Desire

10 Leo Africanus Presents Africa to Europeans Natalie Zemon Davis 179

11 Trade Cards and the Art of Selling Manufacture, c. 1680-1800 Helen Clifford 198

12 Old and New Luxuries in Town and Country in the Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Netherlands Johan Poukens Herman Van der Wee 213

13 Threads of Empire: Indigenous Wares and Material Ecologies in the 'Anglo-World,' c. 1780-1920 Beverly Lemire 229

Part 4 The Age of Global Trade: Goods, Markets, and Trade

14 Who Knew How? Visual Representations of the Ceramics Production Process on Porcelain Vessels Anne Gerritsen 249

15 Factories before the Factory: The English East India Company's Textile Procurement in India and British Industrialisation, 1650-1750 Giorgio Riello 262

16 Botany as Useful Knowledge: French Global Plant Collecting at the End of the Old Regime Sarah Easterby-Smith 276

17 Frictions of Empire: Colonial Bombay's Probate and Property Networks in the 1780s Margot Finn 290

Contributors 303

Index 311

Editorial Reviews

"This state-of-the-art collection offers a fine overview of new debates about the Industrial Revolution. Its attention to global flows of goods and knowledge, the transformative power of consumption, and the centrality of workers, their skills, and how they were organised makes this a worthy tribute to the impressive contributions and career of Maxine Berg." Regina Grafe, European University Institute


"Scholars at different stages of their careers, with widely varied perspectives, here engage with Berg's work in direct ways. They combine useful synthesis with new research to provide a coherent and well-integrated volume which makes an important contribution to economic history." Nuala Zahedieh, University of Edinburgh

From the Publisher