Abstract
Like most economists, I am a great admirer of Adam Smith and feel, again like most economists, that the application of his ideas had much to do with the efflorescence of British civilization in the 19th century. The industrial revolution, however, got its basic start, and indeed according to some historians was completely accomplished, before The Wealth of Nations had significant influence on government policy. The Savery steam engine was built in England in 1698, the Newcomen in 1721, and by 1763 Watt had created the modern steam engine. Hargreaves’ spinning jenny was invented in 1765 and Arkwright’s water frame in 1769. Crompton introduced his “mule” in 1774. The Wealth of Nations, of course, was published in 1776, but it is hard to argue that the introduction of the power loom by Cartwright, in 1785, was the result of policies based on Adam Smith’s work. In fact, Smith had little or no effect on English governmental policies before 1815.
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Notes
See almost any one of the books of Sir Phillip Namier on 18th century English politics.
Nelson was captain at 21. In his case, he no doubt deserved it. His rapid promotion, however, depended not on his merits but on the fact that he had a close relative in the Admiralty.
The Boston Tea Party is a particularly good example of a democracy getting hopelessly muddled. Although a number of New England merchants who had expensive smuggled tea in their warehouses were about to lose money, the average American would clearly benefit from the much lower prices on tea.
R.B. Ekelund, Jr., and Robert D. Tollison, “Economic Regulation in Mercantile England: Heckscher Revisited,” Economic Inquiry, forthcoming, 1980 and “A Rent-Seeking Theory of French Mercantilism,” unpublished manuscript, 1980.
Her killing of Mary, Queen of Scots, was a continuation of the policy founded by her grandfather of killing all the people that had any, even remote claim to the throne of England.
Ekelund and Tollison.
Ekelund and Tollison.
Op. cit.
Once again exempting Chancery.
Subject to a 95% mortage.
The Logic of the Law. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1971 and Trials on Trial: The Pure Theory of Legal Procedures, New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.
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Tullock, G. (1988). Why Did the Industrial Revolution Occur in England?. In: Rowley, C.K., Tollison, R.D., Tullock, G. (eds) The Political Economy of Rent-Seeking. Topics in Regulatory Economics and Policy, vol 1. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1963-5_28
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