Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/186122 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
QUCEH Working Paper Series No. 2018-12
Publisher: 
Queen's University Centre for Economic History (QUCEH), Belfast
Abstract: 
Did the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars contribute to the Industrial Revolution? Recent scholarship argues warfare was an important factor in explaining Britain's industrialisation, by encouraging the invention and diffusion of key technologies with military applications. I re-examine this hypothesis by analysing the patenting of military inventions and inventions considered to be economically valuable during the Industrial Revolution. I find war led to a permanent increase in the rate of military and valuable patenting. War likely created a demand for superior military technologies, while increased wartime production led to demands for more valuable technologies, which both stimulated the Industrial Revolution.
Subjects: 
Industrial Revolution
Patents
War
JEL: 
N43
N74
O31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.