The First Knowledge Economy. Human capital and the European economy, 1750-1850

Topics:

  • Name Innovation, diffusion & invention, inc technology & products
  • Name Comparative international studies
  • Name Knowledge inc transmission/networks
  • Name Education - general issues

Countries:

  • France
  • Netherlands
  • Belgium

Library:

Notes:

Argues for the central importance of scientific knowledge in Europe's economic transformation, 1750-1850 - 'armed with knowledge and know-how and inspired by the desire to get rich, entrepreneurs emerged within an industrial culture wedded to scientific knowledge and technology'. Chapters include: Introduction - knowledge and industrial development: the stakes'; 'A portrait of early industrial lives - the Watts and Boultons, science and entrepreneurship'; 'The knowledge economy and coal - how technological change happened'; 'Technical knowledge and making cotton king'; 'Textiles in Leeds - mechanical science on the factory floor'; 'The puzzle of French retardation - reform and its antecedents'; 'The puzzle of French retardation - restoration and reaction'; 'Education and the inculcation of industrial knowledge - the Low Countries, 1750-1830'