Mercantilism and the laboring poor, 1660 to 1750: The ideological origins of the Industrial Revolution

The main contention of my thesis is that the intellectual origins of the Industrial Revolution in England can be traced back to developments within English mercantilist thought. This thesis directly challenges the existing historiography, which consistently portrays mercantilism as a badly flawed, economic model.;According to this historiographical tradition, modern economic thought was forged when Adam Smith demolished the intellectual basis of mercantilism in 1776. However, this picture of a dramatic rupture is a distortion, for Adam Smith, himself, drew upon aspects of mercantilism when he forged his own synthesis. The Wealth of Nations did not mark the beginning of a revolution in economic thought, but instead it was in itself the culmination of the evolution of English mercantilism.;From 1660 to 1750, as English mercantilists grappled with the intractable problem of perennial poverty, they developed new economic insights, which laid the foundations for liberal economic thought. In particular, through a constant debate over the economic role of labor, they not only developed a labor theory of value but also conceptualized the advantages of mass production and mass consumption. By outlining the advantages of producing for mass markets, mercantilists were laying the intellectual foundation that allowed for this very form of production to develop later in the Industrial Revolution.;The uniqueness of this English debate over the role of labor is partly explained by the fact it was the only government to have a national Poor Law. The Poor Law not only served as a focus for discussion, but its very existence transformed the issue of employing the poor from a local concern into a national problem. Through analyzing the potential benefits of full employment of the poor, they also began to recognize the potential for mass production. In addition, the extraordinary high estimates of the costs of poor relief made it clear to the mercantilists that the amassed purchasing power of the poor, once employed, represented a vast, untapped market. As a result, they also recognized that an increase in consumption by the "laboring poor" could in turn further generate growth by encouraging an expansion of production.