Causes Of The Industrial Revolution

Introduction

The famous term, the “Great Divergence”, refers to the great progress by Western European countries and some parts of New World who overcame other comparable counterparts such as the Qing dynasty of China, Mughal Empire of India, Japan and Ottoman Empire. There have been a series of debates, researches, and studies for why industrial revolutions did not happen during the Ming/Qing dynasties. Known as the Industrial Revolution, this progress led mankind to the transition of mass producing status of machines, heavy industries and irons from hand-made productions. There is no consensus for what is the most significant factor which led to the Industrial Revolution, yet. In this paper, I described major established theories made by two famous scholars for this issue, Pomeranz and Elvin. Furthermore, I discussed other plausible explanations that might explain this controversial topic.

Briefly, Pomeranz claimed favorable access to mines with plentiful coals which were the main sources of the Industrial Revolution was the key factor for European Industrial Revolution. Pomeranz and Elvin both argued that, at the same time, Britain and Western European countries had much more efficient transportation systems which Chinese did not have at that time. Second argument made by Pomeranz was the significance of the New World. Pomeranz contended that, by overcoming ecological limitations through its exploitation on the New World, Britain could industrialize much earlier than other countries.

According to Edwards’ “On the Onset of the Industrial Revolution and its Two Types: Song China and England”, he described how the Song dynasty’s economic growth was similar with that of England during the Industrial Revolution. In that perspec...

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...ding to Pomeranz, the New World provided both valuable resources and precious metals. Also, there were huge and cheap exports of agricultural products by free-wage workers, slaves, to European countries. As colonies were located near coastal regions, transportation costs were cheap enough to keep trades.

Equilibrium Trap

Technology of Ming

Technology of Qing

Education

Existing Labor Markets

Political Environments

Natural Resources

Conclusion

References

Ronald A. Edwards. On the Onset of the Industrial Revolution and its Two Types: Song China and England. Nov 2012. http://www.econ.cuhk.edu.hk/dept/seminar/12-13/1st-term/CUHKedwards.pdf . Visited on 1st May 2014

Pomeranz Kenneth. (2002) Beyond the East-West binary: Resituating the development paths in the eighteenth century world. The Journal of Asian Studies 61 (2) 539-590. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2700300