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Inventive Activity in the British Textile Industry, 1700–1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Trevor Griffiths ,
Philip A. Hunt  and
Patrick K. O'Brien
Trevor Griffiths
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Oxford OX1 3BH
Philip A. Hunt
Affiliation:
Research Assistant at the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
Patrick K. O'Brien
Affiliation:
Director of the Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU.
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Abstract

An analysis of innovations in the eighteenth-century British textile industry is the basis for an evaluation of aggregate studies of invention during the Industrial Revolution, derived from patent evidence alone. Disaggregation of the data challenges recent generalizations concerning the pace and pattern of technical change over the period. Discontinuities in the nature of invention, promoting an acceleration in total factor productivity growth, are traced to the 1790s. Prior to that date, industrial development conformed to a pattern of Smithian growth, as manufacturers diversified their output in response to an expanding domestic market for consumer goods.

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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , December 1992 , pp. 881 - 906
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1992

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