The role of transportation in the Industrial Revolution : a comparison of England and France / Rick Szostak.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Szostak, Rick, 1959-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Transportation--England--History--18th century.

Transportation.

Transportation--France--History--18th century.

Metal trade--England--History--18th century.

Metal trade.

Metal trade--France--History--18th century.

Textile industry--England--History--18th century.

Textile industry.

Textile industry--France--History--18th century.

England--Economic conditions--18th century.

England.

France--Economic conditions--18th century.

France.

Physical Description:

xii, 331 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, c1991.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Szostak develops a model that establishes causal links between transportation and industrialization and shows how improvements in transportation could have a beneficial effect on an economy such as that of eighteenth-century England. This model shows the Industrial Revolution to involve four primary phenomena: increased regional specialization, the emergence of new industries, an expanding scale of production, and an accelerated rate of technological innovation. Through detailed analysis, Szostak explicates the effects of the different systems of transportation in France and England on the four components of the Industrial Revolution. He outlines the development in late eighteenth-century England of a reliable system of all-weather transportation, made up of turnpike roads and canals, that was far superior to the system in France at the same period. He goes on to examine in detail the iron, textile, and pottery industries in each country, focusing on the effect of the quality of available transportation on the decisions of individual entrepreneurs and innovators. Szostak shows that in every case these industries were more highly developed in England than in France.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Tables and Figures

Preface

Introduction

English and French Transport Compared

The English Iron Industry

The French Iron Industry

The English Textiles Industry

The French Textiles Industry

Pottery

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references: p. [309]-327 and index.

ISBN:

1-282-85560-3

9786612855603

0-7735-6293-1

OCLC:

923232985