The Initial Impacts of the Industrial Revolution: An “Astonishing Reversal” – 1771–1850

Eduardo Albuquerque

Chapter Chapter 3 in Technological Revolutions and the Periphery, 2023, pp 43-74 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The mechanization of the textile production in Great Britain led the structural changes behind the “astonishing reversal” which was the transformation of India in an importer of cotton textiles – an important step in the reconfiguration of the center-periphery divide. Triggered in 1771, this technological revolution had among its sources a learning of techniques originating from the East, especially from India. Its initial impact included an expansion of slavery for the production of cotton, with long-lasting consequences in Africa and in the Americas. The global diffusion of cotton industrialization is a puzzle for Beckert (Empire of cotton: a global history. Vintage Books, New York, 2014). This chapter investigates that puzzle, after evaluating the impact of slavery as a form of cotton production and the effects of cheap British textiles on previous producing regions. The propagation of textile industrialization is related to changes at the center – the maturing of an industry of textile machines – and at the periphery – a delayed formation of absorption capacity at uneven speeds. This chapter evaluates the arrival and initial diffusion of the mechanized textile industry in India, China, Russia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, identifying its uneven spread.

Keywords: Cotton industrialization; Slavery and cotton production; Technological transfer from India; Textile machine making; Periphery; Uneven spread of textile industries; Limited industrialization; New international division of labor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:conchp:978-3-031-43436-5_3

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-43436-5_3

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