| Abstract: |
This research note/paper examines several factors that have been mentioned and
debated as determinants of how Britain moves from feudalism to mercantilism
and then to capitalism by way of agricultural and industrial innovations and
also how it arrives at the cusp of the industrial revolution. Of special
interest are somewhat recent conjectures of macroeconomic data, investment
estimates, and data on horses, serfs, and slaves of previous centuries that
perhaps can better contribute to and add some clarification to the debates
over the transition from feudalism to capitalism and the transition from an
early form a capitalism or mercantilism to the industrial revolution. The
estimates, empirical notes, and exploratory analyses in this paper partially
support the Brenner thesis or concept of the transition from feudalism to
capitalism and also support the notion that the proceeds of slave sales and
slave production provide a substantive portion of British investment amounts
leading up to the industrial revolution of the 18th Century. The mainstream
economic notions of property rights, thrift, free markets, and free trade are
only part of the picture of how Britain achieves economic prominence in the
19th Century. Exploitation of people and animals play a very significant role
that has been ignored or minimized in many history and economic history
accounts. |