The Beginning of Industrialization
The Beginning of IndustrializationThroughout Europe the phenomena of industrialization was a regional event that took place between late 1700’s to the early 1900’s. Many factors however determined which nations were “early industrializes” or latecomers/no-shows. In order to show why these countries are classified this way we will have to look at Britain and compare the two groups to Britain, because Britain is associated with being the first country to industrialize. We will also have to take into account what Gerschenkron thinks about early and late industrialized countries, and the six propositions he gives us. By saying this we need to see how Britain started its industrialization and compare it to early-industrialized, latecomers or no-show nations.
First of all we have to look as to why is Britain associated with being the first state to industrialize? One answer to this question is that Britain by far has more of everything. To be more specific Britain’s per capita income is larger compared to other countries. In the period associated with industrialization we see that Britain’s economy does not have Guilds any longer compared to France that had a law banning outside manufacturing, and it only allowed manufacturing within guilds. The eliminations of guilds could have helped in competition and an increase in productivity that could have lead to industrialization. Property Rights and patent rights in England were also established. We also see that income distribution in England was more equal. The fact that England was an island also played a great role in helping industrialization in England. Since England was an island it was less likely, and more difficult for its enemies to attack it. This fact also helped because it helps reduce transportation costs since England is an island transportation costs are lower relative to other countries. We know that transportation cost at that time were high so lower transportation costs is definitely a source of advancement. England also rids itself from serfdom; this makes its labor market more accessible. England is also blessed with a lot of coal a great advantage because coal played a significant role when it came to industrialization. We also know that population was growing in a faster rate, which helped the labor market grow. Coal was required for the technological advances of the time and having coal was a great advantage, and Britain had plenty of it. It is not known which factor is the one that caused Britain to industrialize, it could have been any one of these factors, but one thing is known that Britain is associated with the notion of being the first nation to industrialize.
The early-industrialized countries quickly catch up. We see that a few factors affect these countries. Cameron shows that all the early-industrialized countries had a few things in common, and they are as follows:
1. Each country had a sufficient amount of coal.
2. Each country...
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