A Theory of Affluence

The industrial revolution created an enormous surge in affluence. Whereas mankind was engaged in a struggle for existence in the real sense of the word until then, where any slight disappointment in harvests or other conditions could mean the death of thousands, now it seemed that (at least for a considerable part of) men could leave this behind. There is a lot of debate among historians and social scientists as to what made the industrial revolution possible and why it occurred where it did.

Added to this debate is the theory of Gregory Clark, whose recent book A Farewell to Alms (for the NYT review of this book, click here) created a bit of a stir. Clark's argument is that the industrial revolution was possible because people became more, well, I think 'bourgeois' is the best term for it. Clark shows through careful analysis of the available evidence that there was an enormous downward mobility just before and during the industrial revolution, where the higher classes, because of their higher reproductive success, basically pushed out the traditional lower classes from the economic process. These bourgeois classes brought with them a repertoire of less violent and brutish responses than the traditional lower classes which made them suitable for working in standardized manufacturing conditions. This in turn made it possible that (Western) man escaped the Malthusian trap in which population growth exceeds productivity growth. (I am sure I do no justice to Clark's argument, but something like this is the point.) In other words, evolution made man suitable for starting the industrial (r)evolution -- rather than the other way around.