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Capitalism and the Historians: A Contribution to the Discussion on the Industrial Revolution in England*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

W. Woodruff
W. Woodruff
Affiliation:
University of Illinois
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Extract

The topic of “Capitalism and the Historians” is a subject far exceeding the limitations normally imposed by historical discipline. In fact, in a still wider context, this subject has much to do with the great ideological division of the modern world into the two vast camps of capitalist and communist countries, a most somber spectacle facing us today. The aim here is not to trace the steps by which we have reached the tragic facts of contemporary affairs, but rather to show how our beliefs concerning these matters (such as the view taken of capitalism) are influenced largely by our impression of the past.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 1956 , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1956

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References

1 See Sir Clark, George N., The Idea of the Industrial Revolution, David Murray Foundation Lecture, 1953Google Scholar.

2 While these terms give the impression of clear-cut divisions that rarely exist, it is difficult to see, in this instance, what else can be used in their place.

3 Professor Earl J. Hamilton has made a most significant contribution in the application of the quantitative technique to these problems; and his thesis on forced savings stands apart from the work done by other scholars in this field. See especially his articles: “Prices as a Factor in Business Growth,” The Tasks of Economic History, the Journal of Economic History, XII (1952), 325–49Google Scholar; “Profit Inflation and the Industrial Revolution, 1751–1800,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, LVI (1941–1942), 256–73Google Scholar; “American Treasure and the Rise of Capitalism, 1500–1700,” Economica, IX (1929), 338–57Google Scholar.

4 Clark, Colin, The Conditions of Economic Progress (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1940), pp. 82–84Google Scholar.

5 SirClapham, John, An Economic History of Modern Britain (2d ed; Cambridge, 1930), IGoogle Scholar.

6 Toynbee, Arnold, Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of the Eighteenth Century in England, Popular Addresses, Notes, and Other Fragments (rev. ed.; New York and London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1908)Google Scholar.

7 See the series of papers contributed to the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, by Bowley, A. L. and Wood, G. H., Vols. LXI-LXV (1898–1902)Google Scholar, LXVIII (1905), LXIX (1906), and LXXII (1909); also, Silberling, Norman J., “British Prices and Business Cycles, 1779–1850,” Review of Economic Statistics, V (1923), 223–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tucker, Rufus S., “Real Wages of Artisans in London, 1729–1935,” Journal of the American Statistical Association, XXXI (1936), 73–84Google Scholar; Gilboy, Elizabeth W., “The Cost of Living and Real Wages in Eighteenth Century England,” Review of Economic Statistics, XVIII-XIX (1936), 134–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Dr. Gilboy's, book Wages in Eighteenth Century England (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1934)Google Scholar.

8 Bowley, A. L., Wages in the United Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, 1900), pp. 126–27Google Scholar.

9 For instance, the use of wages for the village of Monimail in Fifeshire, Scotland as “… representative of the course of wages in a large number of rural districts.…” See Wood, G. H., “The Course of Average Wages between 1790 and 1860,” Economic Journal, IX (1899), 590Google Scholar.

10 See, for example, ProfessorAshton's, T. S. comments in the work edited by Hayek, F. A., Capitalism and the Historians (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954), pp. 144–46Google Scholar.

11 Tucker, “Real Wages of Artisans in London,” pp. 73, 82.

12 Professor Hamilton's point, made to the author, that Dr. Gilboy has been unjustifiably criticized on these scores is worth considering. In the first place, satisfactory rent data over a long period are inaccessible; and their omission from Dr. Gilboy's work does not invalidate her conclusions. Secondly, the economic historian's hostility to the use of prices paid by public institutions in constructing a cost of living index has persisted because of a failure to appreciate the high correlation between retail and contract prices.

13 Hayek, Capitalism and the Historians, pp. 152, 159.

14 Ibid., pp. 40–41.

15 In The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Fourteenth Edition (1929), XXIII, p. 269Google Scholar, Bowley says, “If the movements of money wages are compared with those of prices, it becomes evident that a considerable advance was made in real wages between 1815 and 1850”; see also, Bowley's, article “Wages, Nominal and Real,” in the Appendix to Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1926), III, p. 802Google Scholar.

16 Kuczynski, Jürgen, A Short History of Labour Conditions Under Industrial Capitalism (London: Frederick Muller, Ltd., 1942), I, pp. 19–42Google Scholar; also, Colin Clark, Conditions of Economic Progress, p. 84. In the second edition of Clark's book, published in 1951, the reference to average real income falling “… to an Asiatic standard at the beginning of the nineteenth [century] …” has been omitted.

17 Hayek, Capitalism and the Historians, p. 151; also, Clark's, Colin review article of Capitalism and the Historians in The Tablet, July 31, 1954, p. 108Google Scholar.

18 Bowley, A. L., Wages and Income in the United Kingdom Since 1860 (Cambridge, 1937), p. 99Google Scholar.

19 Ashton, T. S., An Economic History of England: The 18th Century (London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1955), p. 235Google Scholar.

20 Mantoux, P., The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., rev. ed., 1928), esp. pp. 428–42Google Scholar.

21 Generalizing from figures pertaining to specific localities and industries is an experience not unknown to scholars of earlier periods. See, for instance, Judges, A. V., “Scopi e metodi della storia dei prezzi,” Rivista storica italiana (1949), 164Google Scholar.

22 Dicey, A. V., Lectures on the Relation Between Law and Public Opinion in England During the Nineteenth Century (2d ed.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1930), pp. 419–20Google Scholar.

23 Tannenbaum, F., “A Note on the Economic Interpretation of History,” Political Science Quarterly, LXI (1946), 253Google Scholar.

24 Hayek, Capitalism and the Historians, p. 91.

25 Mill, J. S., Principles of Political Economy (Boston: Charles C. Little & James Brown, 1848), II, p. 317Google Scholar. While Mill was not without a good word for the capitalist system he evidently saw no reason to omit this remark from his revised edition published in 1858—or later.

26 Rowntree, Seebohm, Poverty: a Study of Town Life (3d ed.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1902)Google Scholar; Charles Booth, Life and Labour of the People in London (1903), originally published as Volume 5 of Life and Labour (1895); Leo, Pope XIII, “The Condition of the Working Classes,” The Encyclical “Rerum Novarum” (1891)Google Scholar.

27 Hammond, J. L., “New Light on the Industrial Revolution,” The Contemporary Review, CXXXI (1927), 744Google Scholar; also, “The Industrial Revolution and Discontent,” Economic History Review, II (1929–1930), 215–28Google Scholar.

28 Hayek, Capitalism and the Historians, p. 12.

29 Ashton, Economic History of England, p. 234.

30 G. N. Clark, The Idea of the Industrial Revolution, pp. 29–30.

31 Toynbee, Lectures on the Industrial Revolution, pp. 69–70, 73, 132.

32 Parsons, Talcott, “Capitalism in Recent German Literature: Sombart and Weber,” The Journal of Political Economy, XXXVI (1928), 651Google Scholar.

33 Hudson, Winthrop S., “Puritanism and the Spirit of Capitalism,” Church History, XVIII (1949). 3–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Gras, N. S. B., “What Is Capitalism in the Light of History?” Bulletin of The Business Historical Society, XXI (1947), 102, 105Google Scholar.