The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious Revolution

TLDR

The Industrial Revolution is often criticized for its conceptual shortcomings, and the authors argue that a preceding household‑based resource reallocation—termed the industrious revolution—expanded both commodity supply and labor while boosting demand for market goods, setting the stage for the later supply‑side Industrial Revolution. The study introduces the “industrious revolution” to contextualize the Industrial Revolution within a broader historical framework. This concept has implications for understanding nineteenth‑ and twentieth‑century economic history.

Abstract

The Industrial Revolution as a historical concept has many shortcomings. A new concept—the “industrious revolution”—is proposed to place the Industrial Revolution in a broader historical setting. The industrious revolution was a process of household-based resource reallocation that increased both the supply of marketed commodities and labor and the demand for market-supplied goods. The industrious revolution was a household-level change with important demand-side features that preceded the Industrial Revolution, a supply-side phenomenon. It has implications for nineteenth- and twentieth-century economic history.