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The enlightened economy : an economic history of Britain, 1700-1850 / Joel Mokyr.

by Mokyr, Joel.

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Yale University Press, c2009.

Industrial revolution -- Great Britain.

Enlightenment -- Great Britain.

Great Britain -- Economic conditions -- 18th century.

Great Britain -- Economic conditions -- 19th century.

New economic history of Britain.

Alternate title:

Economic history of Britain, 1700-1850

x, 564 p. : maps ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [490]-532) and index.

Prologue: the British economy in 1700 -- Enlightenment and economy -- Useful knowledge and technology -- An enlightened political economy -- Enlightenment and the industrial revolution -- The origins of British technological leadership -- Technological change in the industrial revolution -- Britain and the world: an open economy -- Agriculture in the age of enlightenment -- The service sectors: commerce and transport -- The service sectors: finance and personal services -- progress and productivity -- Demographic transformation in the age of enlightenment -- Gender and family in an enlightened economy -- Factories and firms in an age of technological progress -- Social norms and a civil economy -- Formal institutions: the state and the economy -- Living standards and inequality -- The results: the British economy in 1850.

"This book focuses on the importance of ideological and institutional factors in the rapid development of the British economy during the years between the Glorious Revolution and the Crystal Palace Exhibition. Joel Mokyr shows that we cannot understand the Industrial Revolution without recognizing the importance of the intellectual sea changes of Britain's Age of Enlightenment. In a vigorous discussion, Mokyr goes beyond the standard explanations that credit geographical factors, the role of markets, politics, and society to show that the beginnings of modern economic growth in Britain depended a great deal on what key players knew and believed, and how those beliefs affected their economic behavior. He argues that Britain led the rest of Europe into the Industrial Revolution because it was there that the optimal intersection of ideas, culture, institutions, and technology existed to make rapid economic growth achievable. His wide-ranging evidence covers sectors of the British economy often neglected, such as the service industries." -- Publisher description.

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