High-level Equilibrium Trap - Comparison To Britain

Comparison To Britain

By comparison, the British economy at the time of the Industrial Revolution was much smaller and less efficient than China's. Local shortages could not be readily alleviated by internal trade; besides being far smaller than China, Britain lacked an efficient internal water-based trade network, which prompted the development of the steam engine and railroads. The early paucity of arable farmland in Britain encouraged technical refinements to improve crop yields at an early date, whereas the vast size of China permitted production to be increased simply by cultivating more land until late in the imperial period. Although overseas colonies provided cheap slave labor for part of the Industrial Revolution period, local labor in Britain itself was more expensive than in China, providing the capitalist class an incentive to improve worker efficiency.