The Industrial Revolution: A Cliometric Perspective

Abstract

The Industrial Revolution in England represented most importantly a change in the growth rate of the efficiency of the economy from close to zero in the years before 1800 to rates typical of those for modern England or the USA by 1860. This paper details the overall change in productivity growth rates and shows also how this created an even greater increase in income per capita from induced capital accumulation. It also details the sectoral sources of this growth. Lastly, the paper considers how this fundamental economic transformation might be explained as a function of institutions, ideas, demography, and human capital investments.