The Lure of Aggregates and the Pitfalls of the Patriarchal Perspective: A Critique of the High Wage Economy Interpretation of the British Industrial Revolution

J. Humphries
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引用次数: 139

Abstract

The newly dominant interpretation of the British industrial revolution contends that Britain was a high wage economy (HWE) and that the high wages themselves caused industrialization by making profitable labour-saving inventions that were economically inefficient in the context of other relative factor prices. Once adopted these macro inventions put Britain on a growth path that transcended the trajectories associated with more labour-intensive production methods. This account of the HWE economy is misleading because it focuses on men and male wages, underestimates the relative caloric needs of women and children and bases its views of living standards on an ahistorical and false household economy. A more realistic depiction of the working-class family in these times provides an alternative explanation of inventive and innovative activity based on the availability of cheap and amenable female and child labour and thereby a broader interpretation of the industrial revolution.
集体的诱惑与父权视角的陷阱:对高工资经济的批判——对英国工业革命的解读
对英国工业革命的最新主流解释认为,英国是一个高工资经济体(HWE),高工资本身通过制造有利可图的节省劳动力的发明而导致了工业化,而这些发明在其他相对要素价格的背景下在经济上是低效的。一旦采用了这些宏观发明,英国就走上了一条超越了与劳动密集型生产方式相关的轨迹的增长道路。这种对HWE经济的描述具有误导性,因为它关注的是男性和男性工资,低估了妇女和儿童的相对热量需求,并将其对生活水平的看法建立在非历史的和虚假的家庭经济基础上。对这一时期工人阶级家庭更为现实的描述,提供了另一种解释,即基于廉价和顺从的女性和童工的可用性,对发明和创新活动进行了更广泛的解释,从而对工业革命进行了更广泛的解释。
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