For decades, economic historians maintained that the rapid expansion of the textile indust… — GMAT

For decades, economic historians maintained that the rapid expansion of the textile industry in eighteenth-century Britain was primarily driven by technological innovations in mechanization, such as the spinning jenny and the steam engine. According to this traditional view, these inventions drastically reduced production costs, allowing British manufacturers to undersell foreign competitors and dominate global markets.

However, recent scholarship by economist Clara Thorne challenges this technological determinism. Thorne argues that technology was a secondary factor rather than the primary catalyst. By analyzing factory ledgers and trade records from 1750 to 1800, Thorne demonstrates that access to cheap, reliable energy sources—specifically abundant coal deposits situated near navigable waterways—was the crucial precondition that enabled manufacturers to adopt and scale mechanical inventions in the first place. Regions in continental Europe possessed similar mechanical patents during this period but failed to industrialize at a comparable pace due to the prohibitively high cost of transporting fuel to factory sites. Therefore, Thorne concludes that geographic fuel accessibility, rather than inventive ingenuity alone, was the foundational factor explaining Britain's industrial leadership in textiles.

Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken Thorne's argument regarding the primary cause of the British textile industry's rapid expansion?

A
Regions in Britain with the highest concentration of coal deposits were the first to adopt and scale the spinning jenny and steam engine.
B
British textile manufacturers paid significantly higher average wages to factory workers than did European manufacturers during the late eighteenth century.
Continental European regions situated directly adjacent to major coal fields experienced no significant textile expansion until after importing British mechanical inventions.Cevap
D
Traditional economic historians overstated the extent to which European manufacturers attempted to acquire British mechanical patents.
E
Thorne's analysis relies primarily on financial ledgers from large-scale factories rather than small household weaving operations.

Cevap

Continental European regions situated directly adjacent to major coal fields experienced no significant textile expansion until after importing British mechanical inventions.

The argument asserts that fuel accessibility was the foundational catalyst for industrial growth and that technology was merely secondary. The correct answer presents a scenario where fuel access was present in continental Europe, yet no growth occurred until British technological innovations were introduced. This directly demonstrates that technology was the primary essential condition for expansion, severely undermining the researcher's claim.

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Identify the author's core claim and central premise.

Thorne claims that geographic access to cheap fuel (coal near waterways) was the primary catalyst for British textile expansion, while technological inventions were merely secondary.

To weaken an argument, one must target the logical link between the primary cause claimed and the observed outcome.

Determine what evidence would invalidate Thorne's causal claim.

Showing that regions with abundant cheap fuel failed to grow until they received technological inventions proves that technology, not fuel access, was the primary necessary catalyst.

If fuel presence alone failed to produce growth without technology, fuel cannot be considered the primary driving catalyst over technology.

Evaluate the answer choices to find the statement that provides this counter-evidence.

The statement describing European regions adjacent to coal fields failing to expand until acquiring British machinery directly refutes Thorne's thesis.

It isolates fuel availability and shows it was insufficient for industrial expansion without technological innovation.

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Evaluating and Weakening Passage Claims

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