History & Area Studies / Thematic History / Economic History & Industrialization
How Trade Became Britain's Lifeline During the Industrial Revolution
Made in Britain: The Industrial Revolution and the Open Economy
Most historians believed trade was just a side note to Britain's Industrial Revolution. But new research by Gregory Clark, Kevin O'Rourke, and Alan Taylor flips that view. Using a general equilibrium model, they show that by the 1850s, cutting off trade would have caused a 25-30% drop in British welfare—catastrophic. This video breaks down how unbalanced tech growth and a population explosion forced Britain to rely on global markets for survival. Discover why self-sufficiency was a death sentence for the 19th-century economy.
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