roads, canals, and later railways, that would prove to be
crucial for industrial growth.
These foundations decisively changed incentives for
people and impelled the engines of prosperity, paving the
way for the Industrial Revolution. First and foremost, the
Industrial Revolution depended on major technological
advances exploiting the knowledge base that had
accumulated in Europe during the past centuries. It was a
radical break from the past, made possible by scientific
inquiry and the talents of a number of unique individuals.
The full force of this revolution came from the market that
created profitable opportunities for technologies to be
developed and applied. It was the inclusive nature of
markets that allowed people to allocate their talents to the
right lines of business. It also relied on education and skills,
for it was the relatively high levels of education, at least by
the standards of the time, that enabled the emergence of
entrepreneurs with the vision to employ new technologies
for their businesses and to find workers with the skills to
use them.
It is not a coincidence that the Industrial Revolution
started in England a few decades following the Glorious
Revolution. The great inventors such as James Watt
(perfecter of the steam engine), Richard Trevithick (the
builder of the first steam locomotive), Richard Arkwright
(the inventor of the spinning frame), and Isambard Kingdom
Brunel (the creator of several revolutionary steamships)
were able to take up the economic opportunities generated
by their ideas, were confident that their property rights
would be respected, and had access to markets where
their innovations could be profitably sold and used. In 1775,
just after he had the patent renewed on his steam engine,
which he called his “Fire engine,” James Watt wrote to his
father:
Dear Father,
After a series of various and violent
Oppositions I have at last got an Act of
Parliament vesting the property of my new
Fire engines in me and my Assigns,
throughout Great Britain & the plantations for
twenty five years to come, which I hope will