The Wheels of Change: Technology Adoption, Millwrights, and the Persistence in Britain's Industrialization

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of the early adoption of technology on the evolution of human capital and industrialization. We argue that mechanical skills and competence were a main determinant of the location of industry on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. It concentrates on the case of millwrights, eighteenth century specialists in advanced carpentry and hydraulic machinery. Millwrights were a key part of the upper-tail of the distribution of mechanical abilities. Their emergence was determined by the early adoption of watermills in the Middle Ages as recorded in the Domesday Book survey (1086). Their location displays considerable persistence.