The Industrial Revolution as a collective action problem: The House of Commons games patents of monopoly, November 1601

Terence Kealey

Economic Affairs, 2022, vol. 42, issue 3, 418-441

Abstract: The English economy during the sixteenth century was increasingly captured by monopolists, with dire consequences in aggregate. Yet, though many Members of Parliament owned patents of monopoly, on 20 November 1601 the House of Commons agreed, with no voices raised in opposition, to void all such patents. That collective decision helped shift the English economy from a non‐cooperative to a cooperative game, and thus from non‐competition to competition, so taking a key prefatory step towards the English Industrial Revolution.

Date: 2022
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