Read the following two passages regarding the historical debate over the origins of the Industrial Revolution.
Passage A
The sustained economic growth that propelled Western Europe ahead of other global regions starting in the eighteenth century was primarily the result of structural institutional innovations. The establishment of secure property rights, independent judiciaries, and representative political bodies crucially constrained arbitrary executive power. This stable legal and political environment provided entrepreneurs, merchants, and inventors with the security necessary to make long-term investments, thereby fostering a culture of innovation and continuous capital accumulation. It is a historical fallacy to view technological advancement in a vacuum; without robust institutional frameworks guaranteeing that the fruits of labor would not be confiscated, isolated technological breakthroughs would not have translated into a sustained economic transformation. Innovators who fear arbitrary expropriation by an unchecked sovereign state simply do not risk their capital on unproven, capital-intensive industrial ventures. Societies lacking these foundational guarantees inevitably saw their economic potential stifled by extractive elites who prioritized short-term wealth accumulation over long-term growth. Thus, inclusive economic institutions were not just a byproduct of the industrial takeoff, but its fundamental, necessary precondition, providing the essential scaffolding upon which all modern industrial economies were built.
Passage B
Explanations for the sudden, unprecedented economic divergence of Western Europe that rely predominantly on the gradual evolution of domestic legal and political institutions are fundamentally incomplete. While stable property rights and representative assemblies are undoubtedly beneficial for commerce, they are grossly insufficient to explain the sheer scale, speed, and location of the industrial transformation. Robust historical evidence demonstrates that other global regions, notably the Yangzi Delta in Qing China and heavily urbanized regions of Tokugawa Japan, possessed highly sophisticated commercial legal frameworks, respected property protections, and dynamic, competitive markets during the very same era. Yet, these regions did not experience a comparable industrial takeoff. The unique catalysts for European industrialization were not abstract institutional designs, but rather tangible, ecological windfalls: vast, easily accessible domestic coal deposits and the relentless extraction of land-intensive resources from colonial peripheries. These crucial geographic and geopolitical factors provided the immense influx of cheap energy and raw materials needed to finally overcome the strict ecological constraints that had previously capped pre-industrial economic growth globally. While institutions subsequently evolved to manage, protect, and distribute this unprecedented newfound wealth, they were merely the administrative facilitators, rather than the ultimate engines, of the great economic divergence.
Based on the arguments presented, how would the author of Passage A most likely evaluate the "tangible, ecological windfalls" emphasized in Passage B?
- They might provide useful energy and materials, but they would not have resulted in a sustained economic transformation without pre-existing legal guarantees against state expropriation.Cevap
- BThey were the ultimate drivers that finally enabled merchants and inventors to accumulate continuous capital without fear of confiscation by extractive elites.
- CThey were entirely inconsequential to Western Europe's economic divergence, which was exclusively driven by the establishment of representative political bodies.
- DTheir effective exploitation was made possible only by the prior development of the joint-stock company, which allowed investors to pool massive amounts of capital.
- EThey functioned as the essential scaffolding upon which all modern industrial economies were built, ensuring that technological advancements did not exist in a vacuum.