The First Industrial Revolutions

This is the first volume in the new series "The Nature of Industrialization". It provides a critical review of controversy over the established interpretations of industrialization processes in Britain and Europe before 1950. This book starts off with a general critical discussion of conventional images of the industrial revolution in Britain and the relations between industrialization in England and in Europe during this period. Following essays offer more detailed analysis of five specific themes: how industrialization was financed; transport; agriculture; population; and the transformation of work under European industrialization, there is also some comparative discussion of Europe's relations with the rest of the world. This book provides an introduction to recent groundbreaking work on the nature and causes of industrialization. It is also an introduction to the series as a whole; many of the issues raised here in the context of the first industrial revolution will be taken up on a thematic and comparative basis in subsequent volumes.

Preface vi Editors' Introduction vii 1 The Industrial Revolution: Concept and Reality Peter Mathias 1 2 The New Economic History and the Industrial Revolution N. F. R. Crafts 25 3 Industrialization in Britain and Europe before 1850: New Perspectives and Old Problems John A. Davis 44 4 Financing the Industrial Revolution Peter Mathias 69 5 Transport: the Survival of the Old beside the New T. C. Barker 86 6 Agriculture and Industrialization Peter Mathias 101 7 Population Growth and Economic Change in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Robert Woods 127 8 The Transformation of Work in European Industrialization Kristine Bruland 154 Notes on Contributors 170 Index 171