Historiography on The First Industrial Revolution And The Second Industrial Revolution

Question 1

Discuss Emma Griffin’s analysis

Answer 1

Pre industrial societies must maintain a strong agriculture base in order to industrialise
- even the most urbanised and developed pre industrial societies were dependent on surrounding rural areas for food, fuel and trade

Question 2

Which two industries were the backbone of the Dutch golden age?

How does this link to Griffin’s argument?

Answer 2

Shipbuilding and textiles
- both of the industries were dependent on the agriculture economy - timber required for ship building and large herds of sheep are demanded for the textiles business

Question 3

“The land is the source of matter whence all wealth is produced”

Who said this?

Answer 3

French economist Richard Cantillon

• for Cantillon, the land was essential because it provided all the raw material for manufacturing

Question 4

What did the new generation of scholars began to write about the ‘industrial revolution’ ?

Names one

Answer 4

Joseph Toynbee

• challenged whether the industrial revolution was indeed ‘revolutionary’ or at the least even located in ‘industry’
  
  • throughout the first half of the 20th century the emphasis was focused on the gradual, rather than on the revolutionary nature of nineteenth century economic change

Question 5

What did economic theorist Walt Rostow argue?

Answer 5

Britains industrial revolution (being e first) represented the heartbeat of modern history and signified the economic step change that all other nations had to emulate in order to survive

… industrial revolution was a ‘great discontinuity’

Question 6

What did A.E Mason’s book put forward?

Was this supported?

Answer 6

Declared that a short cataclysmic revolution was no longer tenable

• his claims were backed up in the 1980s by a new breed of economic historians, who were preoccupied with measuring the various perimeters of national income: industrial output, GDP, and productivity

Question 7

Name a scholar who supported E.E Mason’s literature

Answer 7

Knock Harley

- articulated how estimates for economic growth had been overestimated between the crucial years from 1770 - 1815