Passage A
Economic historian Joel Mokyr argues that Britain’s leadership in the Industrial Revolution was driven fundamentally by the "Industrial Enlightenment"—the cultural and intellectual dissemination of useful scientific knowledge. During the eighteenth century, the Baconian premise that the systematic investigation of natural phenomena could generate material progress permeated British society. Unlike continental Europe, Britain developed a dense network of scientific societies, public lectures, and technical publications that bridged the divide between natural philosophers and practical artisans. This institutional infrastructure drastically lowered the access costs to propositional knowledge, enabling engineers and mechanics to continually refine, adapt, and scale micro-inventions into commercially viable industrial technologies. While relative factor prices—such as high wages and cheap coal—undoubtedly shaped the specific directions of technological experimentation, they were insufficient on their own to ignite sustained growth. Without a receptive epistemic culture and a growing cadre of literate, skilled craftsmen capable of converting theoretical insights into applied mechanics, favorable economic incentives would have yielded only localized, transient bursts of innovation rather than self-sustaining economic transformation.
Passage B
In contrast to cultural explanations, economic historian Robert Allen contends that Britain’s unique structure of factor prices was the primary catalyst of the Industrial Revolution. In eighteenth-century Britain, real wages were exceptionally high relative to the rest of the world, while energy, in the form of domestic coal reserves, was uniquely cheap. This distinct price asymmetry created a powerful commercial incentive for British entrepreneurs to substitute capital and energy for expensive labor. Landmark technologies such as the steam engine and the spinning jenny were initially inefficient, capital-intensive, and consumed enormous quantities of fuel; consequently, they were profitable to install only in an economy where labor was dear and coal was nearly free at the pithead. In France or India, where labor was cheap and fuel costly, adopting such machinery was economically irrational. The widespread technical training and mechanical tinkering cited by cultural historians were not exogenous cultural developments, but rather endogenously induced market responses: British artisans acquired mechanical proficiencies precisely because profitable, machinery-intensive production generated sustained demand for those specialized skills.
Based on the passages, which of the following statements accurately characterize the relationship between the arguments presented in Passage A and Passage B? Select all that apply.
- Both authors acknowledge that Britain possessed a distinctive configuration of relative factor prices, including high wages and inexpensive energy, in the eighteenth century.Answer
- BBoth authors agree that early industrial machines such as the spinning jenny were commercially unprofitable when deployed in eighteenth-century France or India.
- The author of Passage B regards the widespread mechanical skills of British artisans highlighted in Passage A as an economic consequence rather than an initial catalyst of technological adoption.Answer
- DThe author of Passage A maintains that continental European nations failed to sustain industrialization due to a complete absence of domestic coal reserves.
- EThe author of Passage B contends that the intellectual dissemination of scientific theory was the indispensable trigger that made fuel-intensive machinery economically viable.