The Improving Mentality

In this episode of The Ruffian’s podcast we discuss what is possibly the single most important event in human history: the Industrial Revolution. If you look at all the economic data before (very roughly) 1780-1840, you see flat lines. Afterwards, everything starts going up, and continually. It's not just GDP - human welfare is transformed. Human became much more numerous and at the same time much richer, longer lived, and healthier.

The Industrial Revolution wasn't just about coal and steel and factories. More fundamentally, it was the moment we learned how to continually get more value out of the same or fewer resources. The discovery of productivity growth transformed the human condition.

But there are big unsolved questions about the origins of this transformation. Why did it happen at that time and not earlier? Even more puzzlingly, why did it happen first in Britain, and not, say, France, or the Netherlands, or China? Historians have debated these questions for decades. Some point to material factors like the price of labour and natural resources; others think that culture was more important. My guest leans toward the latter explanation, although as you’ll see, he has his own particular take on it.

Anton Howes is an historian of innovation who is currently writing a book on the Industrial Revolution's origins based on his deep research into the leading inventors and entrepreneurs of the era. He has a popular Substack called The Age of Invention in which he shares some of the amazing stories he has uncovered. I’m delighted to have him on the show.

This is part one of our conversation, in which we discuss Anton’s idea of “the improving mentality”, the mindset that he sees as underpinning the Industrial Revolution, and why it became widespread in Britain first of all. In part two, for paid subscribers only, we discuss why most of the action took place in the north of England rather than in London.

Enjoy!