TY - JOUR
AU - Wrigley, E.
                            Anthony
AB - In the mid-sixteenth century, England was a small country on the periphery ofEurope with an economy less advanced than those of several of its continentalneighbors. In 1851, the Great Exhibition both symbolized and displayed thetechnological and economic lead that Britain had then taken. A half-centurylater, however, there were only minor differences between the leading economiesof Western Europe. To gain insight into both the long period during whichBritain outpaced its neighbors and the decades when its lead evaporated, it isilluminating to focus on the energy supply. Energy is expended in all productiveactivities. The contrast between the limitations inherent to organic economiesdependent on the annual round of plant photosynthesis for energy and thepossibilities open to an economy able to make effective use of the vast quantityof energy available in coal measures is key both to the understanding of thelengthy period of Britain’s relative success and to its subsequent swiftdecline.
TI - Reconsidering the Industrial Revolution: England and Wales
JO - Journal of Interdisciplinary History
DO - 10.1162/jinh_a_01230
DA - 2018-06-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/mit-press/reconsidering-the-industrial-revolution-england-and-wales-XQBLtD0SHm
SP - 9
EP - 42
VL - 49
IS - 01
DP - DeepDyve
ER -