Was the British industrial revolution a conjuncture in global economic history?

IF 1.7 1区 历史学 Q1 HISTORY
P. O’brien
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Past and recent representations of the first industrial revolution As long ago as 1967, Marshal Hodgson recognized that the rise of Western economies could only be properly analysed and understood in a global context.1 Alas, the recommendation by this eminent scholar of Islam and the Islamicate world to re-conceptualize Britain’s Industrial Revolution within the wider spaces, longer chronologies and cultural frameworks of the long and interconnected history of Afro-Eurasia was not taken forward until Eric Jones published the first edition of the European Miracle in 1981.2 Since then, slowly but surely, books, articles and debates relocating and reconfiguring the industrialization of Britain and the West as another cycle in global economic history have proliferated and the subject has matured into a field that has revitalized scholarly interest in very long run structural developments on a global scale. So it is now timely to follow Hodgson’s advice and, by way of a critical survey of recent historiography, endeavour to ascertain in this essay whether Britain’s Industrial Revolution can continue to be represented as a ‘conjuncture’ in global economic history when prospects for accelerated and sustained growth changed fundamentally. Industrialization is a highly significant historical process. It displays common features on local, regional, national, continental and global scales. These are now understood to include social, cultural, political and geopolitical as well as economic forces. Nevertheless, industrialization can be parsimoniously encapsulated and graphically illustrated in statistical form as a conjuncture of accelerated economic transformation from an agrarian or organic to an industrial economy. Thus, following Kuznets, what the most recent wave of interpretations have observed and quantified is ‘structural change’ proceeding more or less rapidly until majorities of national workforces cease to be closely linked to, and dependent upon, primary production. More and more labour becomes employed either directly or indirectly through linked activities – such as trade, transportation, finance, information, consultancy, protection and welfare – in the servicing of manufactured goods. Comparable trends have also been measured, albeit with far greater difficulty, in
英国工业革命是全球经济史上的一个转折点吗?
第一次工业革命的过去和最近的表现早在1967年,霍奇森元帅就认识到,只有在全球背景下才能正确分析和理解西方经济的崛起,直到埃里克·琼斯于1986年出版了《欧洲奇迹》的第一版,非洲-欧亚大陆漫长而相互关联的历史的更长的年代和文化框架才得以推进,文章和辩论将英国和西方的工业化重新定位和重新配置为全球经济史上的另一个周期,这一主题已经发展成为一个领域,重新激发了学术界对全球范围内长期结构发展的兴趣。因此,现在是时候听从霍奇森的建议,通过对近代史学的批判性调查,在这篇文章中努力确定,当加速和持续增长的前景发生根本性变化时,英国的工业革命是否可以继续被视为全球经济史上的一个“转折点”。工业化是一个非常重要的历史过程。它在地方、区域、国家、大陆和全球范围内表现出共同特征。这些力量现在被理解为包括社会、文化、政治和地缘政治以及经济力量。然而,工业化可以简单地概括并以统计形式图示为加速经济从农业经济或有机经济向工业经济转型的结合体。因此,在库兹涅茨之后,最新的解释浪潮观察到并量化了“结构变化”或多或少地迅速进行,直到大多数国家劳动力不再与初级生产密切联系和依赖初级生产。越来越多的劳动力通过贸易、运输、金融、信息、咨询、保护和福利等相关活动直接或间接受雇于制成品服务业。在
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来源期刊
CiteScore
3.30
自引率
5.30%
发文量
28
期刊介绍: Journal of Global History addresses the main problems of global change over time, together with the diverse histories of globalization. It also examines counter-currents to globalization, including those that have structured other spatial units. The journal seeks to transcend the dichotomy between "the West and the rest", straddle traditional regional boundaries, relate material to cultural and political history, and overcome thematic fragmentation in historiography. The journal also acts as a forum for interdisciplinary conversations across a wide variety of social and natural sciences. Published for London School of Economics and Political Science
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