The Industrial Revolution in miniature: the spinning jenny in Britain, France, and India
This paper uses the adoption and invention of the spinning jenny as a test case to understand why the industrial revolution occurred in Britain in the eighteenth century rather than in France or India. It is shown that wages were much higher relative to capital prices in Britain than in other count...
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| Format: | Working paper |
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University of Oxford
2007
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| _version_ | 1826276413981851648 |
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| author | Allen, R Allen, R |
| author_facet | Allen, R Allen, R |
| author_sort | Allen, R |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | This paper uses the adoption and invention of the spinning jenny as a test case to understand why the industrial revolution occurred in Britain in the eighteenth century rather than in France or India. It is shown that wages were much higher relative to capital prices in Britain than in other countries. Calculation of the profitability of adopting the spinning jenny shows that it was profitable in Britain but not in France or in India. Since the jenny was profitable to use only in Britain, it was only in Britain that it was worth incurring the costs necessary to develop it. That is why the jenny was invented in Britain but not elsewhere. Irrespective of the quality of their institutions or the progressiveness of their cultures, neither the French nor the Indians would have found it profitable to mechanize cotton production in the eighteenth century. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:13:36Z |
| format | Working paper |
| id | oxford-uuid:6658f0d0-80a3-4514-8fea-9fa3ecf29b98 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T23:13:36Z |
| publishDate | 2007 |
| publisher | University of Oxford |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:6658f0d0-80a3-4514-8fea-9fa3ecf29b982022-03-26T18:31:18ZThe Industrial Revolution in miniature: the spinning jenny in Britain, France, and IndiaWorking paperhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042uuid:6658f0d0-80a3-4514-8fea-9fa3ecf29b98Bulk import via SwordSymplectic ElementsUniversity of Oxford2007Allen, RAllen, RThis paper uses the adoption and invention of the spinning jenny as a test case to understand why the industrial revolution occurred in Britain in the eighteenth century rather than in France or India. It is shown that wages were much higher relative to capital prices in Britain than in other countries. Calculation of the profitability of adopting the spinning jenny shows that it was profitable in Britain but not in France or in India. Since the jenny was profitable to use only in Britain, it was only in Britain that it was worth incurring the costs necessary to develop it. That is why the jenny was invented in Britain but not elsewhere. Irrespective of the quality of their institutions or the progressiveness of their cultures, neither the French nor the Indians would have found it profitable to mechanize cotton production in the eighteenth century. |
| spellingShingle | Allen, R Allen, R The Industrial Revolution in miniature: the spinning jenny in Britain, France, and India |
| title | The Industrial Revolution in miniature: the spinning jenny in Britain, France, and India |
| title_full | The Industrial Revolution in miniature: the spinning jenny in Britain, France, and India |
| title_fullStr | The Industrial Revolution in miniature: the spinning jenny in Britain, France, and India |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Industrial Revolution in miniature: the spinning jenny in Britain, France, and India |
| title_short | The Industrial Revolution in miniature: the spinning jenny in Britain, France, and India |
| title_sort | industrial revolution in miniature the spinning jenny in britain france and india |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT allenr theindustrialrevolutioninminiaturethespinningjennyinbritainfranceandindia AT allenr theindustrialrevolutioninminiaturethespinningjennyinbritainfranceandindia AT allenr industrialrevolutioninminiaturethespinningjennyinbritainfranceandindia AT allenr industrialrevolutioninminiaturethespinningjennyinbritainfranceandindia |