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Spinning the industrial revolution

Author

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  • Jane Humphries
  • Benjamin Schneider
Abstract
The prevailing explanation for why the industrial revolution occurred first in Britain during the last quarter of the eighteenth century is Allen's ‘high wage economy’ view, which claims that the high cost of labour relative to capital and fuel incentivized innovation and the adoption of new techniques. This article presents new empirical evidence on hand spinning before the industrial revolution and demonstrates that there was no such ‘high wage economy’ in spinning, which was a leading sector of industrialization. We quantify the working lives of frequently ignored female and child spinners who were crucial to the British textile industry with evidence of productivity and wages from the late sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. Spinning emerges as a widespread, low‐productivity, low‐wage employment, in which wages did not rise substantially in advance of the introduction of the jenny and water frame. The motivation for mechanization must be sought elsewhere.

Suggested Citation

  • Jane Humphries & Benjamin Schneider, 2019. "Spinning the industrial revolution," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 72(1), pages 126-155, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:72:y:2019:i:1:p:126-155
    DOI: 10.1111/ehr.12693
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert C. Allen, 2015. "The high wage economy and the industrial revolution: a restatement," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(1), pages 1-22, February.
    2. Gragnolati, Ugo & Moschella, Daniele & Pugliese, Emanuele, 2011. "The Spinning Jenny and the Industrial Revolution: A Reappraisal," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(2), pages 455-460, June.
    3. Charles Feinstein, 1996. "Conjectures and Contrivances: Economic Growth and the Standard of Living in Britain,During the Industrial Revolution," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _009, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    4. Allen, Robert C., 2009. "The Industrial Revolution in Miniature: The Spinning Jenny in Britain, France, and India," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 69(4), pages 901-927, December.
    5. R. C. Allen, 2011. "Why the industrial revolution was British: commerce, induced invention, and the scientific revolution," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(2), pages 357-384, May.
    6. Humphries, Jane & Weisdorf, Jacob, 2015. "The Wages of Women in England, 1260–1850," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 405-447, June.
    7. Allen,Robert C., 2009. "The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521868273.
    8. Allen, Robert C., 2011. "The Spinning Jenny: A Fresh Look," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(2), pages 461-464, June.
    9. Eric L Jones, 2010. "Locating the Industrial Revolution:Inducement and Response," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 7626, August.
    10. Jane Humphries & Benjamin Schneider, 2016. "Spinning the Industrial Revolution," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _145, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    11. Jane Humphries, 2013. "The lure of aggregates and the pitfalls of the patriarchal perspective: a critique of the high wage economy interpretation of the British industrial revolution," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(3), pages 693-714, August.
    12. Gregory Clark, 2007. "The long march of history: Farm wages, population, and economic growth, England 1209–18691," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 60(1), pages 97-135, February.
    13. repec:cge:wacage:2015 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. K. H. Burley, 1958. "An Essex Clothier Of The Eighteenth Century," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 11(2), pages 289-301, December.
    15. Charles Feinstein, 1996. "Conjectures and Contrivances: Economic Growth and the Standard of Living in Britain,During the Industrial Revolution," Economics Series Working Papers 1996-W09, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

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    2. Nuvolari, Alessandro & Tartari, Valentina & Tranchero, Matteo, 2021. "Patterns of innovation during the Industrial Revolution: A reappraisal using a composite indicator of patent quality," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Alexandra de Pleijt & Jan Luiten van Zanden, 2021. "Two worlds of female labour: gender wage inequality in western Europe, 1300–1800," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(3), pages 611-638, August.
    4. Sara Horrell & Jane Humphries & Jacob Weisdorf, 2022. "Beyond the male breadwinner: Life‐cycle living standards of intact and disrupted English working families, 1260–1850," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(2), pages 530-560, May.
    5. Walaa Khoder Kattar & Ahmet Diken, 2020. "Why have USA firms been more effective than the UK firms in the market since the industrial revolution?," Journal of Administrative and Business Studies, Professor Dr. Usman Raja, vol. 6(6), pages 236-245.
    6. Peter Sandholt Jensen & Cristina Victoria Radu & Paul Sharp, 2020. "Standards of Living and Skill Premia in Eighteenth Century Denmark: What can we learn from a large microlevel wage database?," Working Papers 0180, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    7. Alexander Wakelam, 2023. "Assessing female accountability in the long eighteenth century through debt imprisonment," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(2), pages 575-598, May.
    8. Jane Humphries & Benjamin Schneider, 2019. "Wages at the Wheel: Were Spinners Part of the High Wage Economy?," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _174, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    9. Maya Shatzmiller, 2022. "Structural change and economic development in the Islamic Middle East 700–1500: Population levels and property rights," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 69(1), pages 4-22, February.
    10. Peter Maw & Peter Solar & Aidan Kane & John S. Lyons, 2022. "After the great inventions: technological change in UK cotton spinning, 1780–1835," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(1), pages 22-55, February.
    11. Robert C. Allen, 2020. "Spinning their wheels: a reply to Jane Humphries and Benjamin Schneider," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(4), pages 1128-1136, November.
    12. Horrell, Sara & Humphries, Jane, 2019. "Children’s work and wages in Britain, 1280–1860," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-1.
    13. Nogues-Marco, Pilar, 2023. "Quality, Technology, and Dexterity. Female Silk-Spinning Manufacture in Barcelona at the End of the Old Regime," Working Papers unige:174183, University of Geneva, Paul Bairoch Institute of Economic History.
    14. Mario García-Zúñiga & Ernesto López-Losa, 2019. "Building Workers in Madrid (1737-1805). New Wage Series and Working Lives," Working Papers 0152, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    15. Jane Humphries & Benjamin Schneider, 2020. "Losing the thread: a response to Robert Allen," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(4), pages 1137-1152, November.
    16. Humphries, Jane & Schneider, Benjamin, 2020. "Losing the thread: a response to Robert Allen dagger: a response to Robert Allen," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102559, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Benjamin Schneider, 2023. "Technological unemployment in the British industrial revolution: the destruction of hand spinning," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _207, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    18. Peter Sandholt Jensen & Cristina Victoria Radu & Paul Sharp, 2022. "To the manor born: a new microlevel wage database for eighteenth-century Denmark [Trends in real wages in Denmark since the late Middle Ages]," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 26(2), pages 302-310.

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