Summary: The British Industrial Revolution

The British Industrial revolution (ca. 1780) was the result of an economic expansion which took place at the beginning of the sixteenth century and was achievable thanks to many distinct factors, such as Britain’s geographical position and culture. But were institutions an additional important element that affected the start and outcome of the British Industrial Revolution? Were all of these elements correlated? The role of institutions is a subject that continues to stir much debate; considering for example Acemoglu’s point of view in “Institutions as a fundamental cause of long-run growth” and Allen’s view in “Why industrial revolution was British” we notice how different opinions can be on what actually initiated the Industrial Revolution. In this essay I

In fact, good institutions, provide security for property rights and relatively equal access to economic resources to a broad-cross section of society. When analyzing Britain’s Industrial Revolution, a specific focus goes to the view of Mr North and Mr Weingast of the Glorious Revolution (1688) as an important foundation for creating a pluralistic society, and it built on and accelerated a process of political centralization. The formal political institutions, established in late Stuart and Williamite Britain, relied on the notion of credible commitment: this view shows that relocating the power to determine economic institutions to Parliament, rather than to the King, encouraged the British government to commit to repaying national debt and respecting the property of its citizens. This increased the de facto power of citizens, providing incentives for trade, investment and innovation which contributed to the enforcement of property rights, which furthermore heightened the stimulus for the adoption of efficient technologies and stimulated a more varied allocation of