Econ 30423: European Economic History – Europe’s Rise …faculty.tcu.edu/jlovett/Industrial-Rev/Euro-Econ-Hist-1-Syllabus... · Econ 30423: European Economic History – Europe’s

Econ 30423: European Economic History – Europe’s Rise

John Lovett

Spring 2018

The Basics

e-mail: [email protected] web site: http://faculty.tcu.edu/jlovett

Office hours: Scharbauer 4112, T,R, 10:00 – 12:00

Text: 1) Reading packet from University Readers

2) I’ll give you lots of handouts as well. Description of the Course

Econ 30423 investigates the Europe’s transition from a pre-industrial to the world’s first industrial economy. Great Britain receives much of the focus, but developments in the rest of Europe and the wider world are also examined. While this course ends with the “1st Industrial Revolution” (roughly 1760 to 1840), most of what we examine are the developments prior 1760, as far as the Middle Ages. The course goals are to:

1) Describe the developments. What technological and social changes took place? 2) Understand some of the effects of these developments. For example, the high and sustained rates of

change we take for granted today were first seen during the Industrial Revolution. 3) Investigate why these developments took place when and where they did. Why did England lead the

way? Why not the Dutch Republic, France, Belgium, or the German states? Why not the Ottoman Empire or China? Can we learn any lessons that can help us today?

4) Recognize that there are different stories, each based on pretty good empirical evidence, as to why the Industrial Revolution happened when and where it did. In this course, we will investigate several different stories about the causation behind the Industrial Revolution.

Econ 30423 is a Historical Traditions, Social Sciences, and Writing Emphasis course under the TCU Core. ECON 30423 counts as an economics “Historical Context” course for Econ majors. It can alternatively serve as an economics elective for both Econ majors and minors. Grading. Course grades are assigned as shown below. Points are earned as shown on the next page.

A: 92.5%+ A-: 89.5%+ B+: 86.5%+ B: 82.5%+ B-: 79.5%+

C+: 76.5%+ C: 72.5%+ C-: 69.5%+ D+: 66.5%+ D: 62.5%+ D-: 59.5%+

Farmers Harvesting Crops, Pietro Crescenzi, ca1485(k)

I feelest not trés industrial.

Bertha & Karl Benz driving an 1897 Benz Viktoria(l)

Just wait. It’ll be great!!!

I live in a slum! You call

this great?

Over London–by Rail, Gustav Dore, 1872(m)

Econ 30423-Lovett European Economic History – Europe’s Rise Syllabus

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Item Points

Exams 1 – 3 3 x 100 = 300

+ Final Exam, New Material 100

+ 4 Homeworks (best 4 of 5) 4 x 25 = 100

+ Statement of Interest 50

+ Semester Paper 150

+ Participation 50 to - 45 points 50

= Total = 750 points

Exams are approximately half essay and half “objective”. You take all of your exams, except for the final, under “codenames”, so I will not know whose exam I am grading until later. The format of your final is similar to the regular semester exams.

You will be given approximately 5 Homework assignments. Your best 4 count toward your your grade. The rest are dropped.

For your Statements of Interest and Paper, you will research a topic(s) of your choice in European Economic History. The first graded stage in this process is your Statements of Interest. In this you inform the reader of your topic of research and the direction you hope it to go. You then review several professional sources with emphasis on how these sources will contribute to your final paper. Finally, you turn your research into the final product, a semester paper.

Participation is based on attending class, being alert, and interacting in class. You start with 50 participation points. You can miss one days with no penalty. After that, each class you miss costs you 2 points unless it is excused (see next paragraph). The chart at righ shows participation points as a function of attendance. Please note that your participation score can be negative if you miss enough classes. This is akin to courses in which you lose a letter grade after X number of absences.

I will excuse an absence if: 1) you miss class for an official TCU (not fraternity or sorority) activity, medical emergency, etc. and, 2) you provide documentation or an e-mail from Campus Life. If an absence is excused, I drop it from both the numerator and the denominator.

Classroom behavior such as showing up late, texting, disruptive conversations, starting large fires, unleashing rabid squirrels on your instructor, etc., can also cost you participation points.

Finally, I reserve the right to make minor changes to syllabus to facilitate a better student experience.

two

This line should be

shifted to the right by 1 absence.


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Coalbrookdale by Night, de Loutherbourg , 1801(a)

Students With Disabilities

Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding students with disabilities. If you require accommodations for a disability, please contact the Coordinator for Students with Disabilities in the Center for Academic Services, located in Sadler Hall 11. Further information can be obtained from the Center for Academic Services, TCU Box 297710, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or at 817-257-7486.

Adequate time must be allowed to arrange accommodations and accommodations are not retroactive; therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the academic term for which they are seeking accommodations. Each eligible student is responsible for presenting relevant, verifiable, professional documentation and/or assessment reports to the Coordinator. Guidelines for documentation may be found at http://www.acs.tcu.edu/DISABILITY.HTM.

Students with emergency medical information or needing special arrangements in case a building must be evacuated should discuss this information with their instructor/professor as soon as possible. Academic Misconduct Policy

Definitions of academic misconduct, as well as possible sanctions for academic misconduct, can be found in the TCU Student Handbook.

Passing off one student’s work as your work and plagiarism are two definite No-No’s!

And now for the really cool stuff Question 1: There Have Been Lots of Revolutions. What’s the big deal about this one?

The Potato Eaters by

Vincent Van Gogh. 1885.(b)

What’s so special ‘bout this

revolution?

Yeah … There have been lots of revolutions.

Him looks like Mr. Potato-Head to me!


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Answer: The Effects Were Quite Profound

Imagine transporting someone 200 years forward in time. What changes would this person see? The answer depends critically upon which time they started in. For the vast majority of human history, our time traveler would see little difference in how people go about making their daily living. For example, let’s transport Gaius, a Roman, transported from 0 AD to 200 AD1. Our time traveler would see plenty of changes. Empower Augustus had died to be replaced by a series of subsequent emperors. Mount Vesuvius had erupted and buried several Roman towns. Rome had conquered much of Britain. A new cult, Christianity, was seen in parts of the empire. Hair styles had changed. Different plays were at the theatre, etc. Gaius, however, would not see radical changes in how people went about making their daily existence. Wheat was still milled the same way. Cloth making techniques had changed little. Modes of transport were basically the same. Gaius could slip back into his or her old job with little re-training or change in living standard.

What if we, instead, transported Gaius 1,000 years forward, from 0 AD to 1,000 AD? The political and religious changes are definitely more significant. The Western Roman Empire is long gone. Almost everyone in Europe, is Christian. Language and dress have changed. There also have been changes in how goods are made. Ploughs are different. Horse collars have changed. However, our time traveler would still recognize nearly all products and processes. Cloth was still made basically the same way. Ships were made of wood. Carts were used for transport. Humans, animals, and sometimes water, provided the power. Gaius would live at approximately the same standard of living he saw in old Rome. In some ways he’d be better off, in some ways worse.

Now imagine transporting someone (let’s call her Emily) forward in history a century or two, this time starting in 1750. Wow! Emily would hardly believe her eyes. Seemingly nothing is made the same … and most products aren’t even recognized. In fact, Emily might see more changes in just a few decades than Gaius did in centuries. Everything from cloth to dinnerware is now being made by machine in factories rather than produced by hand, in small shops and homes. Iron (and later steel) is replaced wood as a material for building ships, bridges, etc. Coal is replaced human and animal power in many applications. Steam locomotives are replacing horse carts.

So, what’s the point? Through most of human history changes in how we make our daily livelihood have been slow; too slow for a person to see any real change in their lifetime. By the late 1700s, however, the world began to experience rapid and sustained changes in the daily means of existence … for the first time in human history. The “Industrial Revolution” is often defined as the rise of the factory, steam power, and mass-production. While these technical developments are impressive in and of themselves, in the big picture, what resulted from them is even more impressive. For the past two or so centuries, we live in a world in which we expect to see great economic change in our lifetime. We take it for granted that our children will live both differently, and better, than our generation. Our grandchildren’s economic lives will be even farther from that of our own. What is normal today; rapid and sustained economic development, was not the norm for the vast majority of human history. It is the legacy of the industrial revolution.

Secondly, prior to the last few centuries, technological progress was very slow and resulted mostly in higher populations, not higher average living standards … until the Industrial Revolution that is. Since the Industrial Revolution (much of) the world has seen a rise in both population and living standards.

Finally, the technical (ex. steam engines) and social changes (ex. the rise of wage labor in factories) are exciting in and of themselves. The table below summarizes the changes we will examine. Talk about a two different worlds!

1 or from 0 CE (Common Era) to 100 CE (Common Era) respectively


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Table 1: Summary of Changes

Item Before the Industrial Revolution Modernity After Modernity

Rate of Change It typically took many, many, generations, to see a significant change in how things are done.

One could see significant changes in how things are made in a single generation.

The Effects of Technical Change

Technical change resulted in a largerpeople, but little increase in living standards. It was a Malthusian world.

Technical change resulted in both a larger population, and significant increases in living standards. It’s a Post-Malthusian World.

Long-run Growth of per Capita GDP

0.0%/year/ to 0.25%/year 1%/year to 2.5%/year

… for economies that manage to “tap in”

Type of Economy

Organic: Power comes from humans and animals, plus some water and wind. Wood is the main structural material and heat source.

Inorganic: Power comes from coal. Iron and steel become major structural materials.

How Goods are Produced and

Traded

Homes and Small Shops: Small-scale production using relatively simple tools and human power.

Individual/Family Enterprises, and Small Partnerships

Factories: Large-scale production using much machinery, labor conducting specialized tasks, & a large, central energy source.

Corporations

Producers and Consumers Face:

Local markets World Markets

Question 2: The 1st Industrial Revolution is 1760 – 1840? Did Modernity Start in 1760?

Medieval farming diorama from London Museum of Science(c) Pre-industrial spinning and weaving (textile making) (d)

Answer: No way!

So, you’re talking about the rise of modern society.

Dude, “modernity” is a better term than “modern society”.

Was there really a big

change around 1760?

Oh Boy! Only 2 decades to go!!

Dude, you’re an ox. Shut up!


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In this syllabus, I’ve been talking about the Industrial Revolution as being a revolutionary change running from (roughly) 1760 to 1840. I’ve been using these years as the break between pre-modern and modern. The truth is more complex for several reasons.

First, the sources of change go way back. For example, modern financial institutions, vital to the industrial revolution, have roots that go back many centuries. The same can be said for political developments, social/institutional changes such as the decline of manoralism, checks on the English crown, etc. Even many of the technological developments this era saw can be directly traced back many centuries. England did not, in a single day, change from a Medieval economy to a modern one. There were a lot of changes that took place; many argue had to take place, before England was ready to move into modernity. In short, while this course centers on the years, 1760 to 1840, we will cover events as far back as 900.

Secondly, “revolution” implies rapid change, not just profound change. Economic Historians used to tell just such story. According to these stories, prior to (about) 1760, change was very gradual. Beginning around 1760, things suddenly ramped up. The years before 1760 were like the American Great Plains, not much change. The years after 1760 were like the Rocky Mountains, incredible rates of change.

Now, most studies indicate a more gradual acceleration of change. It is as if the Great Plains started to become steeper around 1200, transitioned to the foothills of the mountains by (about) 1500. After that, the land continued to get steeper until eventually England was in the mountains. Even with this new evidence, the late 18th century and early 19th century are still significant in and of themselves. It is during these years that rates of change are finally high enough for marked changes to occur within a few decades. It is during these years that England is clearly out of the pre-industrial club, and a member of the modern club.

Finally, I am using the term “Industrial Revolution” for its name recognition value. Industrial Revolution is a well-recognized, but imprecise, label that’s been used for a long time. Sometimes historians add a “Second” Industrial Revolution beginning roughly in 1850. This Second Industrial Revolution and was typified by developments in steel manufacture, chemicals, and electricity (versus textiles and steam engines in the first). There is nothing sacred about 1760 and 1840 as endpoints. Nor is there any reason to concentrate on only industrial changes. It’s just a label I use. A more precise course title might be “the beginnings of modernity” or “the beginning of the modern historical period”. Question 3: What Caused the Industrial Revolution to Occur When and Where it Did?

Painting of 1819 “Peterloo Massacre” by Richard Carlile(e) Harper’s Ferry Print of Haymarket “Affair”, 1886(f)

We want to know more!

Yeah! Why did this start in England?

… or the Ottoman Empire?

Why not France?

… or China?


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Answer: Awesome question! We have lots of ideas … but some of them disagree.

If the first goal of this course is to understand what happened during this transition, the second goal to understand why these changes happened. Why did the Industrial Revolution start in Europe and England in particular? If I was living in 1650 and betting on a European country to jump ahead, I’d probably pick France (The “Great Country” of Europe) or the Dutch Republic. Both seemed more advanced than England.

If I was around in 1400, I’d pick Ming China. China had gunpowder, silk spinning, superior metallurgy, and an economy of 65 million people. China had been trading as far as Africa, using bigger ships than Europeans had, for centuries. My second pick would be the Ottoman Empire, a power much stronger than any single European state. Four hundred years later, however, England and Europe were clearly ahead.

There are great rewards to figuring out “Why Europe?” and “Why England?” If we know what led to this acceleration of development back then, we can better promote development today. The lessons may help us keep the rich nations of the world from stagnating or even slipping backwards. The lessons may help us close the gap between rich and poor nations, a gap that has widened since the Industrial Revolution. (g) (h)

Tentative Course Readings

Topic Readings

Well Howdy!! 1) Syllabus

Was this really a revolution?

2) Lovett, John. (2014). Draft of: Chapter 1 of Demography and Colonial Development.

3) Landes, David. (1999). The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. New York, NY: Norton. pp 186 – 199.

4) Wrigley, E.A.. (2004). Poverty, Progress and Population. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp 68 – 86.

Why Europe?

Stories from “Olden Times” (What

was mainstream 30 years ago)

… and a slightly more modern take

5) Jones, Eric. (2003). The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia (3rd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp xxii – xxxv and Chap 1.

6) Gies, Joseph and Francis Gies (1994). Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages. Harper Perennial. Chap 3. “The Not So Dark Ages: 500 – 900”

Highly impressive I

must say.

Yes, but the readings! Tell us

about the readings!


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Topic Readings

Why Europe?

Nation states and “healthy” competition

7) Jones, Eric. (2003). The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia (3rd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Chap 6.

8) Perry, M., Chase, M., Jacob, J., Jacob, M., and Von Laue, T. (2007). Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. pp 222 – 235.

Why Europe?

Free trade is like groovy man!

9) Persson, Karl. (2010). An Economic History of Europe: Knowledge, Institutions and Growth, 600 – Present. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp 21 ‐ 41.

Why Europe?

Financial Markets: Inheritance, Corporate Structure, and Banking.

10) Kuran, Timur. (2011). The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp 8, 9, 63 – 86, 97 ‐116, 143 ‐161.

Why Europe?

Demography baby! Babies baby! (but at the right place and time)

11) Clark, Gregory. (2007). A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. pp 19‐33, 112‐123, 266‐271.

12) Persson, Karl. (2010). An Economic History of Europe: Knowledge, Institutions and Growth, 600 – Present. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp 52 – 59.

Why Europe?

Resources from the Colonies

13) Pomerantz, Kenneth. (2001). The Great Divergence : China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. “Chapter 6: Abolishing the Land Constraint”. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. pp 236 ‐ 264.

14) Perry, M., Chase, M., Jacob, J., Jacob, M., and Von Laue, T. (2007). Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. pp 333 ‐ 354.

What happened?

Meet some technology. (Textiles)

15) Gies, Joseph and Francis Gies (1994). Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages. Haper Perennial. Chap 5. The Technology of the Commercial Revolution: 900 ‐ 1200

16) Yorke, Stan. (2005). The Industrial Revolution Explained ‐ Steam, Sparks, and Massive Wheels. Countryside books. pp 66 ‐ 80.

Why Britain and not Holland?

Good, but limited, government!

… but …Freedom from the king’s despotism is not much good if there are rampaging armies in

your backyard.

17) Merriman, John. (1996). A History of Modern Europe: From the Renaissance to the Present. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. pp 232 – 273.

17 ½) Lovett, John. (2016). Barbarians at the Gates: Geography, War, and Economic Development in Early Modern Europe. This is a working paper that will be e‐mailed to you.

Why Britain? Enclosures: Improvements in

Property rights in Land.

18) Dewey, Peter. (1990). Agriculture. In Rex Pope (Ed.) Atlas of British Social and Economic History Since c. 1700. London, UK: Routledge. pp 1‐5.

What happened? Meet some more technology.

(Transportation)

19) Yorke, Stan. (2005). The Industrial Revolution Explained ‐ Steam, Sparks, and Massive Wheels. Countryside books. pp 46 ‐ 54.

20) Cofin, J., Stacey, R., Lerner, R., and Meacham, S. (2002). Western Civilizations: volume 2. pp 81, 85, 89, 90.

Why Britain?

Devo's hit "Working in a Coal Mine"

21) Allen, Robert. (2009). The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp 80 – 105, 156 ‐ 181.


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Picture Sources: All pictures, except for the photos taken by me (& about which I don’t care), are in the public domain in the U.S .

a) , b), d) – f), h) and l –m are from: Wikipedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/FILENAME),.

Picture Original Work Wikipedia Filename

a)

Loutherbourg, Phillip Jakob. 1801. Coalbrookdale by Night (oil on

canvas). Currently in the Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany.

PD-US.

Philipp Jakob Loutherbourg d. J. 002.jpg retrieved Aug 22,

2008.

b)

Van Gogh, Vincent, 1885. The Potato Eaters (oil on canvas).

Currently in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

PD-NL-Gov. PD-US.

Van-willem-vincent-gogh-die-kartoffelesser-03850.jpg

retrieved Aug 22, 2008.

e) Carlile, Peter. 1891. The Peterloo Massacre (coloured engraving). PD-

UK-known. PD-US. Peterloo carlile.JPG . retrieved Aug 22, 2008.

f) Harper’s Weekly. 1886. The Haymarket Riot. PD-US. … My apologies

but this is a scene from U.S., not European history. Oh well.HaymarketRiot-Harpers.jpg. retrieved Aug 22, ‘08.

g)

United States Centennial Commission, Francis A. Walker, Ed.,

International Exhibition, 1878, Reports and Awards Group XV, pp

96-97. PD-US.

CentennialEngine.png. retrieved Aug 22, 2008.

h) Unknown illustrator. 1835. From History of the cotton manufacture in

Great Britain by Sir Edward Baines. PD-US. Powerloom weaving in 1835.jpg. retrieved Aug 22, 2008.

l) Daimler-Benz. 1897. Bertha Benz and Karl Benz driving an 1897 Benz

Viktoria. PD-US.

Bertha_Benz_with_her_husband_Carl_Benz_in_a_Benz-

Viktoria%2C_model_1894.jpg. retrieved 02Nov,

2011.

m) Gustav Dore. 1872. Over London–by Rail. PD-US. Dore_London.jpg. retrieved Nov 2, 2011.

c) John Lovett. 2007. Photo of a diorama (are those little guys alive?) at the London Museum of Science, London, UK.

d) Walker, George. 1814. Women Spinning. From The Costume of Yorkshire illustrated by a series of forty engravings. From the New

York Public Library digital Gallery, url: http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1123177, retrieved Sep 20, 2010. PD-US.

i) John Lovett. 2007. Photo of my only friends and me at the London Museum of Science, London, UK.

j) John Lovett. 2007. Photo of me and a wax figure of the lovely Queen Victoria at the National Rail Museum, York, UK.

k) Pietro Crescenzi. Ca 1486. Farmers harvesting crops. Woodcut. Published in 'Opus ruralium commodorum' ca (1486). Library of

Congress/Science Photo Library. PD-US. http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/153693/enlarge#. retrieved Nov 2, 2011. All speech and thought bubbles were inserted by John Lovett. If you thought the original artists included these bubbles … you need to get out more.

↓ … and some parting photos from before the age of selfies. Yes, I was cool a long time ago. ↓

John and Queen Victoria at the UK National Rail Museum in York, England. John’s freaking because the only

Janney coupler he can find is on a British locomotive built for … China!! Had the UK lost its lead by 1880? (j)

John with 3 of his best (& only?) friends; Stephenson’s Rocket” steam locomotive, a Bessemer Convertor, and a steam hammer forge at the London Science Museum. (i)

No way, Dude!!

I love you guys!

Officer! There’s a strange man taking pictures

of himself!

Bloody Yanks!

Documents

Econ 30423: European Economic History – Europe’s Rise …faculty.tcu.edu/jlovett/Industrial-Rev/Euro-Econ-Hist-1-Syllabus... · Econ 30423: European Economic History – Europe’s