Patent disclosure and England's early industrial revolution

Abstract

Did the English patent system helps to spark the Industrial Revolution? Most scholars addressing this question have focused on whether patents improved the economic incentive to invent. In contrast, I focus on whether patents improved access to useful knowledge-via the requirement (instituted in 1734) that patentees provide technical specifications for their inventions. I documented a structural break in per capita patenting in 1734-but only in London, where specifications were stored. I also documented a structural shift in London-based inventors' responsiveness to non-metropolitan patents in 1734, when specifications for them became regularly available.