Rethinking the Industrial Revolution: Five Centuries of Transition from Agrarian to Industrial Capitalism in England

936 Pages·2013·3.53 MB·English

by  Michael Andrew Zmolek

Rethinking the Industrial Revolution
Historical
Materialism
Book Series
Editorial Board
Sébastien Budgen, Paris – Steve Edwards, London
Marcel van der Linden, Amsterdam – Peter Thomas, London
VOLUME 49
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hm
Rethinking the Industrial Revolution
Five Centuries of Transition from Agrarian
to Industrial Capitalism in England
By
Michael Andrew Žmolek
LEIdEn • BOSTOn
2013
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zmolek, Michael Andrew.
 Rethinking the industrial revolution : five centuries of transition from agrarian to industrial
capitalism in England / by Michael Andrew Zmolek.
  pages cm. — (Historical materialism book series ; volume 49)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-21987-8 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-25179-3 (e-book) 1. Industrial
revolution—England. 2. Great Britain—Economic conditions. I. Title.
 HC254.5.Z56 2013
 330.942’07—dc23
2013011334
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ISSN 1570-1522
ISBN 978-90-04-21987-8 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-25179-3 (e-book)
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For Mary Louise
who I knew as Mom

Contents
List of Tables and diagrams  .................................................................................... xiii
Acknowledgments  ...................................................................................................... xv
Foreword  ....................................................................................................................... xvii
Introduction
Why the Industrial Revolution began in England  ...................................... 3
The transition debate  .......................................................................................... 8
Marx on property relations: Brenner’s point of departure  ...................... 17
The specificity of capitalism and agrarian capitalism  ............................... 23
Market dependency .............................................................................................. 28
The elusive origins of capitalism and industrialisation  ............................ 32
Conclusion  .............................................................................................................. 40
Part One: England Transformed
Manufacturing and Agrarian Capitalism, 1348–1783
1. The Pre-History of Industry  ............................................................................... 47
Wage labour and the guilds  ......................................................................... 49
The evolution of the guild system in England  ....................................... 57
Queen Betty’s law  ........................................................................................... 66
The economic context in Tudor and Stuart Times  .............................. 70
nef’s ‘early industrial revolution’  ............................................................... 74
‘Capitalism’ in medieval and early modern mining  ............................. 81
Mining and agrarian capitalism: the instructive case of
Whickham  ................................................................................................... 86
The so-called phase of proto-industrialisation  ...................................... 91
Conclusion  ........................................................................................................ 101
2. Parliament and Revolution  ................................................................................ 105
The crisis of the early seventeenth century  ............................................ 107
viii • Contents
Parliament’s civil war  ..................................................................................... 116
Restoration to Glorious Revolution  ........................................................... 136
The post-revolution settlement  .................................................................. 146
The glorious financial revolution  ............................................................... 148
‘Free trade’  ......................................................................................................... 156
Conclusion  ........................................................................................................ 162
3. Agrarian Capitalism: The Key to Britain’s Rise to Power  ......................... 165
Views on the relationship between agriculture and
manufacturing  ............................................................................................ 166
War, debt and the land tax  .......................................................................... 171
The storm before the calm  ........................................................................... 174
Stability and ‘old corruption’  ....................................................................... 182
The so-called agrarian depression: 1730–50  ............................................ 192
The return to war and the ’45  ..................................................................... 206
Conclusion  ........................................................................................................ 212
4. An Empire in Crisis  ............................................................................................... 215
Pitt and empire  ................................................................................................ 218
The emergence of popular politics: Wilkes and George III  ............... 223
Rebellion at home and abroad  ................................................................... 235
The survival of empire  ................................................................................... 244
Conclusion  ........................................................................................................ 248
5. Harvesting the Agrarian Revolution  ................................................................ 253
The end of the demographic pause  ........................................................... 256
Internal and external expansion  ................................................................ 259
Parliamentary enclosures and the consequences of increasing
agrarian productivity  ................................................................................ 265
The great enclosure debate  .......................................................................... 270
Conclusion  ........................................................................................................ 279
Part Two: ‘Such Machines . . . As Cannot Err’
Capital and Technology in the Making of Industrial England, 1700–1800
6. Technology and History  ...................................................................................... 283
The ahistoricism of technological determinism  .................................... 288
The technology of Antiquity  ........................................................................ 301
Medieval to early modern technology  ...................................................... 307
Contents • ix
The technology of the Industrial Revolution  ......................................... 322
Conclusion  ........................................................................................................ 338
   7. The Social Origins of the Factory  ................................................................... 343
‘Plen-ty of time’: The multifarious conditions of labour, 1700–60  ... 348
Wages and the emerging labour market  ................................................. 355
Concentration and regional specialisation  ............................................. 359
Solutions for poverty  ...................................................................................... 368
The first factory  ............................................................................................... 379
‘A gymcrak of some consequence’  ............................................................. 384
The turning point  ............................................................................................ 393
Conclusion  ........................................................................................................ 396
   8. Factories and Machinery  ................................................................................... 401
Wedgwood  ........................................................................................................ 403
The specific role of machinery .................................................................... 415
Manufacture versus machinofacture  ........................................................ 420
‘King Cotton’ and the cotton king: from factory to factory system  .... 428
Technological versus organisational innovation  ................................... 444
discipline and control  ................................................................................... 451
The arrival of the power-loom  .................................................................... 455
Conclusion  ........................................................................................................ 457
   9. Capital and Industry  ........................................................................................... 461
Woollens and worsted  ................................................................................... 462
Linen: the second-class textile  .................................................................... 467
Iron and steam  ................................................................................................. 469
Mining  ................................................................................................................ 479
Beer, paper and chemicals  ........................................................................... 483
The capitalist  .................................................................................................... 490
Origins and definitions of capital  .............................................................. 495
Conclusion  ........................................................................................................ 500
Part Three: Custom’s Last Stand
The Rise and Fall of Artisan-Led Resistance to Capitalism
 in England, 1783–1848
10. Custom and Law  .................................................................................................. 509
The paradox of custom  ................................................................................. 511