New Explanation For the Industrial Revolution

Pcol writes "The New York Times is running a story on Dr. Gregory Clark's book 'A Farewell to Alms,' which offers a new explanation for the Industrial Revolution and the affluence it created. Dr. Clark, an economic historian at the University of California Davis, postulates that the surge in economic growth that occurred first in England around 1800 came about because of the strange new behaviors of nonviolence, literacy, long working hours, and a willingness to save. Clark's research shows that between 1200 and 1800, the rich had more surviving children than the poor and that he postulates that this caused constant downward social mobility as the poor failed to reproduce themselves and the progeny of the rich took over their occupations. 'The modern population of the English is largely descended from the economic upper classes of the Middle Ages,' Clark concludes. Work hours increased, literacy and numeracy rose, and the level of interpersonal violence dropped. Around 1790, a steady upward trend in production efficiency caused a significant acceleration in the rate of productivity growth that at last made possible England's escape from the Malthusian trap."

Caffeine

[Lindsay Lohan]

It's hardly coincidental that coffee and tea caught on in Europe just as the first factories were bringing in the industrial revolution.

The widespread use of caffeinated drinks helped transform human economies from farm to factory. Boiling water helped decrease disease among city workers. And caffeine kept them from falling asleep over the machinery.

In a sense, caffeine is the drug that made the modern world possible. And the more modern our world gets, the more we seem to need it. Without that useful jolt of coffee--or Diet Coke or Red Bull--to get us out of bed and back to work, the world of the average /.'er wouldn't exist.

Trend in other direction

[sznupi]

And now, as evidenced by intro of "Idiocracy", we have a trend in other direction...

Re:From the article....

[adisakp]

I have trouble believing slashdotters are helping the population grow rapidly. After all, wouldn't that require... well... having sex ???

Re:Caffeine

[morgan_greywolf]

Only a Slashdot would we see this explanation modded up insightful... ;)

Re:Caffeine

[SIGALRM]

I think OP *was* insightful. Caffeine makes working insane hours a bit more plausible for me.

Re:Selective breeding

[king-manic]

If he is correct in his hypothesis then we're in trouble. If the article post last week about Smart Teens having less sex can be extrapolated to adults then we should see the opposite happen in the US. It already felt like the general populace of the USA is getting dumber this just seems to confirm my suspicions.

We should introduce an artificial selection pressure. How about a mechanical sphynx that targets pre-pubescent with random algebra, English, and social questions and if you fail ti eats you.

Re:Caffeine

[Austerity Empowers]

That and a lack of readily available available and ready women.

Re:A counter example

[sanman2]

I thought HORNY PEOPLE out-reproduce everybody else. So society is getting progressively hornier all the time. Logically, we'll eventually reach a situation where we can't go 5 minutes without sex. We'll be like lemmings.

Re:This may be why the United States is failing

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a nice theory. It touched nerves in too many places to mention. But it's a nice theory.

There, I fixed it. Now you understand what he was really trying to say.

Re:Caffeine

[suv4x4]

It's hardly coincidental that coffee and tea caught on in Europe just as the first factories were bringing in the industrial revolution.

That, AND they found Megatron burried in the ice around that time.

Re:Caffeine

[OakDragon]

If you don't believe this, don't consume caffeine in any form for half a year...

Yeah, like that's going to happen.

**slurp**

Re:Caffeine

[dwater]

> our frankly shocking approach to sanitation

Quote flash :
Edmund Bladkadder : Well, what we're talking about in, erm, privy terms is the very latest in front-wall, fresh-air orifices, combined with a wide-capacity gutter installation below.
Mollie : You mean you crap out of the window.
Edmund Bladkadder : Yes!

Re:Pillaging colonies is the UK family value

[mikeabbott420]

Thanks for learning English ;)

Re:A counter example

[o'reor]

My, my, look at Vatican City: positive growth rate! (okay, so it's only 0.05%, but it's positive all the same).

It's not exactly as if all those priests and nuns were breeding like rabbits, but still...

Re:Caffeine

[AragornSonOfArathorn]

If it is a riding plow, where you are in a cart behind a horse, then it is very easy to sleep while plowing. Horse knows where it needs to go, you are just systems management at that point.

Fair enough. The question remains, though; who's making coffee for the horse?