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The Industrial Revolution in the Low Countries in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century: A Comparative Case Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2010

Joel Mokyr
Joel Mokyr
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Extract

The comparative method will accomplish great things. … The historical specialist asks for a method which is a technical instrument, generally used, easily manageable and capable of giving positive results. The comparative method is precisely such an instrument. … I believe that this method can and must penetrate monographic studies. Marc Bloch

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Articles
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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , June 1974 , pp. 365 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1974

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References

This research is made possible by a grant from the Concilium on International and Area Studies. I should like to express my thanks to my dissertation advisers John C. H. Fei and William N. Parker for their help and encouragement. In addition, I am indebted to many of my friends and colleagues, especially Stephen DeCanio, Jan deVries, Nachum Gross, Yoav Kislev, and Rick Levin. The usual warning about the author's sole responsibility is in order.

1 Belgium is covered to some extent in Landes, D., The Unbound Prometheus (Cambridge: University Press, 1969)Google Scholar, Ch. 3 and in Henderson, W. O., Britain and Industrial Europe, 1750–1870, 2nd ed. (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1965), pp. 102–38Google Scholar. (The latter deals only with the interaction of Britain and Belgium.) The basic facts with respect to Belgium can also be found in the somewhat unbalanced contribution of Jan Dhondt and Marinette Bruwier to the Fontana Economic History of Europe, Vol. 4, Sec. 1. A more useful, though brief, summary of Belgian development in this period can be found in Milward, A. S. and Saul, S. B., The Economic Development of Continental Europe, 1780–1870 (London: Allen and Unwin, 1973), pp. 292–296Google Scholar, 432–453. The Netherlands has been virtually untouched by Englishspeaking economic historians, and nonspecialists have to rely on translated work, sometimes in abridged form. A recent article of a very general nature is Houtte, J. A. Van, “Economic Development of Belgium and the Netherlands from the Beginning of the Modem Era,” The Journal of European Economic History, I (Spring 1972), 100–120.Google Scholar

2 Municipal Archives, Ghent, File K2–1 (G).

3 Briavoinne, N., De l'Industrie en Belgique, Causes de Décadence et de Prosperité, sa Situation Actuelle (Brussels: A. Wahlen, 1839), Vol. II, p. 374.Google Scholar

4 Lebrun, P., “Croissance et Industrialisation, l'Expérience de l'Industrie Drapière Verviétoise 1750–1850,” in: First International Conference of Economic History (Stockholm 1960), Contributions and Communications (Paris: Mouton et Cie, 1960), p. 566.Google Scholar

5 Briavoinne, De l'Industrie, Vol. I, pp. 252–262. On the relative backwardness of the Belgian iron industry around 1820 see G.M. Roentgen, “Berigt van den Toestand van Ijzerwerken in de Waalsche Provinciën,” [Report on the Situation of the Iron Works in the Walloonic Provinces] (1823). Edited with an introduction by Boer, M. G. De, Economisch-Historisch Jaarboek, Vol. IX (1921), pp. 103–149.Google Scholar

6 Briavoinne, N., “Sur les Inventions et Perfectionnements dans l'lndustrie,” Academie Royale de Belgique, Mémoires Couronnés, XIII (1838), pp. 121Google Scholar, 124.

7 de Montalivet, J. P. B., Exposé de la Situation de l'Empire (Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1813), pp. 48–49Google Scholar. Montalivet's figures are, however, somewhat inconsistent and his data for the départment of Jemappes (Hainault) for example seem too low. For an analysis of Montalivet's data see Craeybeckx, J., “Les Débuts de la Revolution Industrielle en Belgique et les Statistiques de la Fin de l'Empire,” in: Mélanges offerts á G. Jacquemyns (Brussels: Université Libre de Bruxelles, Éditions de l'lnstitut de Sociologie, 1968), pp. 115–144.Google Scholar

8 Coppejans-Desmedt, H., “Incidenten rond de Constructie van de Eerste Mechanische Weefgetouwen te Gent,” [Some Details Concerning the Construction of the First Mechanical Looms in Ghent], Handelingen der Maatschappij voor Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde te Gent, XIII (1959), pp. 163–177Google Scholar. Rénier, J. S., “Histoire de l'lndustrie Drapière aux Pays de Liège,” Mémoires de la Societé Libre d'Emulation de Liège, n.s. Vol. VI (1881), pp. 181ff, 267, 273, 278. Briavoinne, “Sur les Inventions,” pp. 91–93.Google Scholar

9 , Briavoinne (1839), De l'lndustrie, II, p. 374Google Scholar puts the number of spindles in 1830 at 440,000. In 1835 the number is estimated at 383,320 of which more than 300,000 are “active.” Cf. Heuschling, X., Essai sur la Statistique Générale de la Belgique, 2nd ed., (Brussels: Établissement Géographique Faubourg de Flandre, 1841), p. 9.Google Scholar

10 Coppejans-Desmedt, H. (ed.), “De Statistieken van E. C. Van Der Meersch over de Katoenindustrie in Oost Vlaanderen,” [The Statistics of E. C. Van De Meersch on the Cotton Industry in East Flanders], Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire, CXXVIII (1962), 121–181.Google Scholar

11 Demoulin, R., Guillaume ler et la Transformation Économique des Provinces Beiges (Liège: Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l'Université de Liège, 1938), p. 322.Google Scholar

12 “Mémoires sur les Houillères des Provinces de Hainaut, Namur, Liège et Ldmbourge,” Mons, 1816, cited in Warzeé, A., “Exposé Historique et Statistique de l'lndustrie Métalurgique dans le Hainaut,” Mémoires et Publications de La Societé des Sciences, des Arts et des Lettres du Hainaut, 2nd Series, Vol. 8 (1860–1862), p. 43.Google Scholar

13 Briavoinne (1839), De l'lndustrie, II, p. 290. Heuschling, Essai, p. 100.

14 Demoulin, Guillaume 1er, p. 315.

15 Schöller, P., “La Transformation Économique de la Belgique de 1832 à 1844,” Bulletin de l'Instttut de Recherches Économiques (Louvain), XIV (1948), 585.Google Scholar

16 Statistique de la Belgique, Récensement Générale (1846), Industrie (Brussels: Ministerè de l'lntérieur, 1851), pp. x,Google Scholar xi. The figure cited is more than 380,000. Cf. footnote 9.

17 Imports average about 5,000 tons in the first years of the 1830's, rising to double that figure in 1850. Statistique de la Belgique, Tableau Générale du Commerce avec des Pays Étrangères (Brussels: Ministère de l'lntérieur, 1838Google Scholar and subsequent years).

18 Schöller, “La Transformation,” p. 594.

19 This is pointed out by F. Mendels, “Industrialization and Population Pressure in Eighteenth-Century Flanders,” unpublished dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1969.

20 Dillen, J. G. Van: Van Rijkdom en Regenten, [On Wealth and Regents, Handbook of the Economic and Social History of the Netherlands During the Republic] (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1970), pp. 540–557.Google Scholar

21 D'Alphonse, F. J. B., Aperçu sur la Hollande (1811), published by the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (The Hague: Belinfante Bros., 1900), pp. 223–309.Google Scholar

22 Déliberation du Conseil du Département de Zuiderzee, 2 Sept. 1811. R.G.P. [National Historical Publications], Vol. 16 (1912), p. 1164.Google Scholar

23 Vries, B. W. De, De Nederlandse Papiemijverheid in de 19e Eeuw, [The Dutch Paper Industry in the Nineteenth Century] (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1957), pp. 182–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24 Brugmans, I. J., De Arbeidende Klasse in Nederland in de 19e Eeuw (1813–1870), [The Working Class in the Netherlands in the Nineteenth Century], 8th ed. (Utrecht-Antwerp: Het Spectrum, 1971, orig. pub. in 1925), p. 33.Google Scholar

25 On the protoindustry in the Twente area see, e.g., Sneller, Z. W., “La Naissance de L'Industrie Rurale dans les Pays Bas aux XVIIe et XVIIIe Siècles,” Annales d'Histoire Économique et Sociale, I (1929), pp. 193–202CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Also: Boot, J. A. P. G., De Twentsche Katoennijverheid 1830–1873, [The Cotton Industry in the Twente Area] ‘(Amsterdam: H. J. Paris, 1935), pp. 1–105Google Scholar. On the North Brabant industry see, e.g., Keune, A. W. M., “De Industriële Ontwikkeling Gedurende de 19e Eeuw,” [Industrial Development in the Nineteenth Century], in: Eerenbeemt, H. F. J. M. Van Den and Schurink, H. J. A. M. (eds.), De Opkomst van Tilburg ah een Industriestad, [The Rise of Tilburg as an Industrial Town] (Nijmegen: N. V. Centrale Drukkerij, 1959), pp. 11–60Google Scholar. On Helmond see: Harkx, W. A. J. M., De Helmonds Textielnijverheid in de Loop der Eeuwen, [The Textile Industries in Helmond during the Centuries] (Tilburg: Stichting Zuidelijk Historisch Contact, 1967).Google Scholar

26 Boot, Twentsche Katoennijverheid, Appendix 2.

27 Ibid., p. 71.

28 For the Netherlands: Staatkundig en Staathuishoudkuhdig Jaarboekje, [Yearbook of Politics and Political Economy], VIII (1855), p. 69Google Scholar; for Belgium: Statistique de la Belgique, Industrie, pp. x-xi.

29 Schöller, “La Transformation,” pp. 592–594.

30 Statistisch Jaarboekje, [Statistical Yearbook of the Netherlands], I (1851), p. 218Google Scholar (2).

31 Figures cited by H. Baudet, “De Dadels van Hassan en de Start der Nederlandse Industrialiteit,’ [The Start of Dutch Industrialism], in: Bedrijf en Samenleving, [Enterprise and.Society], Festschrift presented to Prof. Brugmans, I. J.( Alphen on the Rhine: N. Samson, 1967), p. 3.Google Scholar

32 Some of the arguments presented here appear in Houtte, Van, “Economic Development,” and in Economische en Sociale Geschiedenis van de Lage Landen, [Economic and Social History of the Low Countries] (Antwerp: Standaard Boekhandel, 1964). Other explanations have been drawn from various contexts.Google Scholar

33 On the importance of peat see P. Van Schaik, “De Economische Betekenis van de Turwinning in. Nederland,” [The Economic Significance of Peat Mining in the Netherlands], Economisch-Historisch Jaarboek, XXXII (1968–1969), pp. 141–205Google Scholar and XXXIII (1970), pp. 186–235. The first steam engines in the Twente area seem to have been operating on peat. Cf. Posthumus, N. W. (ed.), “Bijdragen tot de Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Grootindustrie,” [Contributions to the History of Dutch Industry], Economisch-Historisch Jaarboek, XI (1925), p. 185Google Scholar, for an eyewitness report. See also Boessenkool, J.: “De Eerste Stoommachine in de Twentsche Textiel-Industries,” [The First Steam-engine in the Textile Industry in Twente], Textiel-Historische Bijdragen, IV (1962), pp. 67–72.Google Scholar

34 Woude, A. M. Van Der, “Het Noorderkwartier,” [The Noorderkwartier, A Study of the Demographic and Economic History of Western Parts of the Netherlands] A.A.G. Bijdragen 16, II (1972), pp. 476, 488, 496.Google Scholar

35 Brugmans, I. J., Paardenkracht en Mensenmacht, Sociaal-Economische Geschiedenis van Nederland 1795–1940, [Horsepower and Human Might, A Social-Economic History of the Netherlands] (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1961), p. 39.Google Scholar

36 This is emphasized by Crouzet, F., “Wars, Blockade and Economic Change in Europe, 1792–1815,” Journal of Economic History, XXIV (Dec. 1964), 579–580.Google Scholar Cf. Landes, Unbound Prometheus, p. 144.

37 Demoulin, Guillaume 1er, pp. 157–181.

38 For a summary see J. H. Van Stuijvenberg, “Economische Groei in Nederland in de 19e Eeuw: een Terreinverkenning,” [Economic Growth in the Netherlands in the Nineteenth Century: A Reconnaissance] in: Bedriff en Samenleving, pp. 195–225 and works quoted there.

39 Brugmans, Arbeidende Klasse, p. 67.

40 Van Houtte (1972), “Economic Development,” p. 108. Mendels, F., “Protoindustrialization: The First Phase of the Industrialization Process,” Journal of Economic History, XXXII (March 1972), 241–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41 Lebrun, P., “La Rivoluzione Industrial in Belgio,” Studi Storici, II, (Dec. 1961), p. 589Google Scholar. Dhondt, J., “The Cotton Industry of Ghent During the French Regime,” in Crouzet, F., et al. (eds.), Essays in European Economic History (London: Edward Arnold, 1969), pp. 16–18.Google Scholar

42 Habakkuk, H. J., American and British Technology in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: University Press, 1962);Google ScholarSaul, S. B. (ed.), Technological Change. The United States and Britain in the Nineteenth Century (London: Methuen, 1970).Google Scholar

43 Habakkuk, American and British Technology, pp. 51–53.

44 Temin, P.: “Labor Scarcity and the Problem of American Industrial Efficiency in the 1850's,” Journal of Economic History, XXVI (Sept. 1966), 277–295;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSalter, W. E. G., Productivity and Technological Change (Cambridge: University Press, 2nd ed., 1969), pp. 43–44.Google Scholar

45 Habakkuk, American and British Technology, pp. 43–45.

46 This is emphasized for Belgium in Cameron, R.: Banking in the Early Stages of Industrialization (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 130–131Google Scholar. For the Twente area in the Netherlands this is argued by Boot, Twentsche Katoennijverheid, pp. 265–268, 276. Similar arguments have been made for France by Landes, The Unbound Prometheus, pp. 130, 131n, and for England, among others, by Crouzet, F., “Capital Formation in Great Britain During the Industrial Revolution,” in Capital Formation in the Industrial Revolution (London: Methuen, 1972), p. 188.Google Scholar

47 Habakkuk, American and British Technology, p. 28 argues that capitalists behaved as if capital had cost them nothing. In these situations it may be preferable to abstract altogether from the concept of a “return to capital” and to view profits as a (quasi) rent. Cf. Salter, Productivity and Technical Change, p. 6 1.

48 This term is borrowed from Hymer, S. and Resnick, S., “A Model of an Agrarian Economy with Non-agricultural Activities,” American Economic Review, LIX (Sept. 1969), 493–506. In the present context the Z-good plays a somewhat different role, since it is sold in the market rather than consumed on the spot.Google Scholar

49 Mendels, “Protoindustrialization,” p. 243.

50 For a proof, see Appendix.

51 Lewis, W. A., “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labor” The Manchester School, XXII (May 1954)Google Scholar, repr. in Agarwala, A. N. and Singh, S. P. (eds.), The Economics of Underdevelopment (New York: Oxford University Press, 1958), pp. 400–449Google Scholar. See also, “Unlimited Labor: Further Notes,” The Manchester School, XXVI (January 1958), 1–32.Google Scholar

52 For a definition see Fei, John C. H. and Ranis, Custav, Development of the Labor-Surplus Economy (Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin, 1964), pp. 21–22.Google Scholar

53 Landes, The Unbound Prometheus, p. 127.

54 This point has been raised by Klein, P. W. in Kapitaal en Stagnatie tijdens het Hollandse Vroegkapitalisme, [Capital and Stagnation during the Period of Early Capitalism in Holland] (Rotterdam: Universitaire Pers, 1967), pp. 8–9.Google Scholar Curiously enough, Klein makes the argument in reference to Holland, ignoring the comparatively high wages there.

55 All figures from Smits, E., Statistique Nationale, Développement des 31 Tableaux Publiés par la Commission de Statistique (Brussels: H. Tarlier, 1827), Annex Table I.Google Scholar

56 This refers to alluvial day soils only. Cf. Sneller, Z. W., “Anderhalve Eeuw in Vogelvlucht,” [A Century and a Half in Overview], part A, in Geschiedenis van de Nederfondsche Landbouw 1795–1940, [History of Dutch Agriculture] (Groningen: J. B. Wolters, 1943), pp. 26–32.Google Scholar There seems to be no absence of the objective conditions for protoindustry in the Dutch alluvial provinces.

57 Hogendorp, K. G. Van, Bijdragen tot de Huishouding van Stoat in het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, [Contributions to the Political Economy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands] (Amsterdam: K. H. Schadd, 1825), Vol. V, p. 167.Google Scholar

58 Cited by Varlez, L., Les Salaires dans l'lndustrie Gantoise (Brussels: J. Lèbegue, 1901–1904), Vol. II, p. xix.Google Scholar

59 Ducpétiaux, E., Mémoire sur le Pauperism dans les Flanders (Brussels: M. Hayez, 1850), pp. 66–67;Google ScholarMeersch, P. C. Van Der, “De l'État de la Mendicité et de la Bienfaisance dans la Province de la Flandre Orientale,” Bulletin de la Commission Centrale de Statistique, V (1853), 237;Google ScholarJacquemyns, G., “Histoire de la Crise Économique des Flanders (1845–1850),” Académie Royale de Belgique, Mémoires, XXVI (1929), 136–137Google Scholar, 205–228.

60 On the use of the truck system see Génart, C., L'lndustrie Cloutière en Pays Wallon (Brussels: J. Lebègue, 1900), p. 28Google Scholar, and Lebrun, P., L'Industrie de la Laine à Verviers (Liège: Bibliothéque de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l'Université de Liège, 1948), p. 264Google Scholar. The quantitative importance of embezzlement is, by its very nature, impossible to appraise, but it may have been important as a supplement to wages. Cf. sources quoted by , Mendels (1972), “Protoindustry,” p. 244.Google Scholar

61 Cited in Posthumus, N. W., “De Industrieele Concurrentie tussen Noord-en Zuid-Nederlandsche Nijverheidscentra in de XVIIe en XVIIIe Eeuw,” [The Competition between the Industrial Centers in the Northern and Southern Netherlands in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries], in Mélanges d'Histoire offerts à H. Pirenne (Brussels: Vromant et Cie., 1926), p. 376. As noted above, Tilburg was one of the few areas in the Netherlands in which protoindustry was important.Google Scholar

62 Lebrun, De L'lndustrie de la Laine, p. 325.

63 Van Hogendorp, Bijdragen, II, p. 269.

64 Génart, Industrie Cloutière, p. 26.

65 Roentgen, “Berigt,” p. 149.

66 Van Dillen, Van Rijkdom, p. 553. Vries, Joh. De, De Economische Achteruitgang der Republiek in de Achttiende Eeuw, [The Economic Decline of the Dutch Republic in the Eighteenth Century] (Amsterdam: J. Van Campen, 1959), p. 107.Google Scholar

67 Smith, Adam, The Wealth of Nations (Skinner, Andrew, ed., Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970), p. 194.Google Scholar

68 Wilson, Charles, “Taxation and the Decline of Empires, an Unfashionable Theme,” in Economic History and the Historians: Collected Essays (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969), pp. 114–127.Google Scholar

69 Deane, P. and Cole, W. A., British Economic Growth, 1688–1959, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: University Press, 1967), p. 148.Google Scholar

70 Brugmans, I. J. (ed.), Statistieken van de Nederlandse Nijverheid uit de Eerste Helft de 19e Eeuw, [Statistics of Dutch Industry from the First Half of the Nineteenth Century], R.G.P. Vols. 98, 99 (1956).Google Scholar

71 Mokyr, J., “An Early Nineteenth Century Industrial Survey,” unpublished manuscript, Yale University, 1972, pp. 9–15.Google Scholar

72 B. W. DeVries, Nederlandse Papiemijverheid, pp. 191–192.

73 The formal setup has been borrowed from Solow, R. M., Capital Theory and the Rate of Return (Amsterdam: North Holland, 1963), although the context is of course different.Google Scholar