Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Robert C. Allen
Author-Workplace-Name: Dept of Economics and Nuffield College, University of Oxford
Author-Email:bob.allen@nuffield.ox.ac.uk
Title: The High Wage Economy and the Industrial Revolution: A Restatement
Abstract: This article responds to Professor Jane Humphries’ critique of my assessment of the high
wage economy of eighteenth century British and its importance for explaining the Industrial
Revolution. New Evidence is presented to show that women and children participated in the
high wage economy. It is also shown that the high wage economy provides a good
explanation of why the Industrial Revolution happened in the eighteenth century by showing
that increases of women’s wages around 1700 greatly increased the profitability of using
spinning machinery. The relationship between the high wage economy of the eighteenth
century and the inequality and poverty in Britain in the nineteenth century is explored.
X-Classification-JEL: 
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Length: 32 pages
Creation-Date: 2013-06-01
Number: _115
File-URL: http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/materials/papers/12767/allen115.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_115