Did globalisation aid industrial development in colonial India? A study of knowledge transfer in the iron industry

Tirthankar Roy

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: The article explores the link between international economic integration and technological capability in colonial India. The example of the iron industry shows that many new ideas and skills flowed into India from Europe, but not all met with commercial success. The essay suggests a reason why. In those fields in which the costs of complementary factors were relatively low, the chance of success was higher. This condition was present in the craft of the blacksmith, in which the main complementary input was abundant craftsmanship. The condition was slow to develop in iron-smelting, where the costs of fuel, labour, capital and carriage of ore were initially high.

Keywords: ISI; TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER; TRADE; INEQUALITY; BRITISH; EUROPE; MODEL (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Indian Economic and Social History Review, 2009, 46(4), pp. 579-613. ISSN: 0019-4646

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/27396/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Did globalisation aid industrial development in colonial India? A study of knowledge transfer in the iron industry (2009)
Working Paper: Did globalization aid industrial development in colonial India?: a study of knowledge transfer in the iron industry (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:27396

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().