The Machinery Question and the Making of Political Economy 1815-1848CUP Archive, 4. feb. 1982 - 392 sider For those who lived through it, Britain's Industrial Revolution was experienced as the Machinery Question. It was far from clear to contemporaries whether the first forms of mechanized factory production heralded an inevitable economic revolution, or were but one course among several which might be modified or eventually rejected altogether, Opinion about the necessity or beneficence of machines was profoundly divided at all levels of society; the often acrimonious debate that arose reverberated through economic, political, cultural and intellectual life. Crucially important for the development of this debate, because it was the source of the very terms of discussion, was the new discipline of Political Economy. The major contention of this book is that the Machinery Question was also the making of Political Economy. Dr Berg argues that technical change was one of the foremost theoretical concerns of Ricardo and his successors, and the foundation for their distinctly optimistic view of the future. She shows how the Machinery Question fostered the social conditions in which the status of Political Economy as a discipline was established, and concludes that by the 1840s the divisions over machinery were firmly embedded in the great rival creeds of the future, liberalism and socialism. The book will interest teachers and students of British social and economic history, the history of economic thought and the history of science and technology. |
Indhold
The progress of the machine | 20 |
PART TWO THE POLITICAL ECONOMY | 43 |
Political economy and the division of labour | 75 |
Political economy and capital III | 111 |
PART THREE A SCIENCE | 145 |
The order of the factory | 179 |
IO The handloom weavers | 226 |
PART FIVE THE SOCIAL CRITICS | 253 |
Radicals | 269 |
Social reformers | 291 |
EPILOGUE BEYOND MACHINERY | 315 |
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The Machinery Question and the Making of Political Economy 1815-1848 Maxine Berg Ingen forhåndsvisning - 1980 |
Almindelige termer og sætninger
accumulation advance agricultural analysis argued artisans Association Babbage British brought capital capitalist chapter classes Committee concept concern condition connection continued cotton created critics debate demand discipline discussion division of labour early economists Edinburgh effects employment engine England export factory fixed force greater growth hand handloom History Ibid ideas impact important improvement increase industrialisation industry intellectual interests introduction invention issue John Journal knowledge land laws Lectures Letters London loom machine machinery Malthus Manchester Manufactures McCulloch means Mechanics Institute Mill Moral movement natural nineteenth century operation opinion Owenites period political economy poor popular population practical present Principles problems production profit progress question radical regarded Report Review Ricardo rise scientific Senior skill social Society Statistical steam technical change techniques theory Thomas took Tory trade views wages wealth weavers whole workers