Part IV. Britain, China, and the Irrelevance of Stage Theories
August 2nd, 2009Britain was first, though the classical (and many of the neoclassical) economists did not recognize that its course was beginning the factor of 16. The slow British growth in the 18th century proposed by Crafts and Harley is unbelievable, but however one assigns growth within the period 1700-1900 it is now plain that something unprecedented was happening. Only non-economists recognized it at the time. The central puzzle is why innovation did not fizzle out, as Mokyr has put it—as it had at other times and places. Productivity in cotton textiles, for example, grew at computer-industry rates, … [continues; click title bar above]
