Topic 2 (Theories) Flashcards
(38 cards)
What is meant by the ‘Great Divergence’?
The post‑1800 surge in Western European (esp. British) GDP per capita that left Asia, Africa and Latin America far behind.
Who coined the ‘Industrious Revolution’ thesis and what does it describe?
Jan de Vries; a 17th‑18th‑c. shift in household behaviour toward longer work hours, more female/child labour and less leisure, raising output before mechanisation.
Name two headline textile inventions that kicked off factory mechanisation.
James Hargreaves’ spinning jenny (1764) and Edmund Cartwright’s power loom (1785).
In growth accounting, what does ‘A’ represent in Y = A f(L,K,H,N)?
Total‑factor productivity or technology—the residual efficiency in combining labour, capital, human capital and natural resources.
Which price combination underpins Robert Allen’s ‘high‑wage, cheap‑energy’ explanation?
Exceptionally high real wages together with very low coal prices in England.
Summarise Allen’s seven‑step narrative in one sentence.
High‑quality wool trade → imperial markets → London hub → cheap coal → scarce labour/high wages → agrarian productivity → labour‑saving, coal‑using invention becomes profitable.
What evidence shows English wages topped the global league before 1800?
London real wages, expressed in subsistence baskets or silver grams, exceed those of Amsterdam, Beijing or Delhi.
Key critique of Allen by Mokyr, Kelly & Ó Gráda?
High wages mirror already high productivity and thus cannot by themselves explain inventive effort.
What share of 1660‑1800 English patents aimed specifically at saving labour?
Roughly 4 % (contrasted with c. 31 % that targeted capital saving).
Which epidemic helped shift English land use toward pasture, aiding its wool edge?
The Black Death (mid‑14th c.) depopulated the countryside, freeing land for sheep pasture.
By how much did London’s population grow between 1500 and 1700?
From around 50 000 to roughly 500 000 inhabitants.
What cheap natural resource fuelled that metropolitan expansion?
Easily mined coal from nearby seams, sold at uniquely low prices.
How did the custom of ‘St Monday’ change around 1800?
Artisans began abandoning the Monday leisure day and working a regular six‑day week.
What is the extractive vs. inclusive‑institutions distinction and who popularised it?
Acemoglu & Robinson: extractive institutions funnel wealth to elites; inclusive ones secure property rights and broad opportunity.
Which country led in ‘pure’ science while Britain shone in applied tinkering, according to Mokyr?
France (pure science) versus Britain (applied science and engineering).
Why does Joel Mokyr underplay formal schooling in explaining England’s IR?
Compulsory education arrived late; inventive culture spread via informal networks, dissenting academies and print.
Which historian framed the IR as a shift from an ‘organic’ to a ‘mineral‑based’ energy regime?
E. A. Wrigley in ‘Energy and the English Industrial Revolution’.
What does Kenneth Pomeranz argue provided an ecological ‘safety valve’ that allowed Britain to industrialise?
Access to cheap coal at home and land‑intensive resources (sugar, cotton) from the New World colonies.
According to Douglass North & Barry Weingast, which 1688 event strengthened property rights and stimulated capital markets?
The Glorious Revolution, leading to the Financial Revolution and credibility of the English state.
Which theory stresses that a ‘Culture of Growth’ & Enlightenment knowledge exchange primed Europe for sustained innovation—and who wrote it?
Joel Mokyr’s cultural/ideational thesis, outlined in ‘The Enlightened Economy’ and ‘A Culture of Growth’.
Who proposed that England’s demographic regime (late marriage, low fertility) raised real wages and demand for goods?
Ansley Coale & John Hajnal via the ‘European Marriage Pattern’ insight (often linked by De Moor & Van Zanden).
Which economic historian revised early‑IR GDP growth downwards, arguing the take‑off was slower than once believed?
Nicholas Crafts, using new national‑account reconstructions with Knick Harley.
What is the ‘macro‑invention vs. micro‑invention’ distinction and whose concept is it?
Joel Mokyr: rare, path‑breaking macro‑inventions (e.g., Watt engine) followed by countless incremental micro‑inventions that diffuse and improve them.
Which author claims that British workers’ discipline and time‑keeping culture (e.g., clock time) were decisive?
David Landes in ‘The Unbound Prometheus’ and related essays.
