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THE The
Lure of Aggregates and the Pitfalls of the Patriarchal Perspective: A Criti=
que
of the High Wage Economy Interpretation of the British Industrial Revolutio=
n
=
Jane Humphries
All Souls College,
University of Oxford
Abstract
 =
;
=
The newly
dominant interpretation of the British industrial revolution contends that
Britain was a high wage economy (HWE) and that the high wages themselves ca=
used
industrialization by making profitable labour-saving inventions that were
economically inefficient in the context of other relative factor prices.Once adopted these macro invention=
s put
Britain on a growth path that transcended the trajectories associated with =
more
labour-intensive production methods.This account of the HWE economy is misleading because it focuses on =
men
and male wages, underestimates the relative caloric needs of women and chil=
dren
and bases its views of living standards on an ahistorical and false househo=
ld
economy.A more realistic dep=
iction
of the working-class family in these times provides an alternative explanat=
ion
of inventive and innovative activity based on the availability of cheap and
amenable female and child labour and thereby a broader interpretation of the
industrial revolution.