Sponsored by the Office for History of Science and Technology (UC Berkeley)
And the History of Health Sciences Program (UCSF)
Will Ashworth
University of Liverpool
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Industrialisation, Measurement and Revenue in Eighteenth Century Britain
The British Industrial Revolution is traditionally seen as a prime moment when knowledge, the arts, and manufactures combined in a powerful manner. This talk does not challenge the importance of these themes, but claims that the more mundane role of state regulation was, perhaps, of much greater significance. In 1700 England/Britain had very little industry. Within the space of 100 years, through a system of tariff protection and nurturing, it had quickly industrialised. Having a sound manufacturing base was crucial to eighteenth century revenues with 56 percent of all state income coming from the excise by the Seven Years War (1756-63). The excise pursued two objectives: Firstly, it was intended to nurture English backward industries to improve their products to meet continental and illicit rivals (superior choice and the black market obviously lost the state a considerable sum of money). And, secondly, it had to overcome rival calculating strategies. The eventual method and form of gauging established a correlation between the product, its quality and the revenue demands of the state. This frequently required both the space of production and the actual product to be reconfigured to meet the criteria of the excise's form of measurement. As this talk will show this was a contested, mutable and ambiguous process.
4:00PM
Monday, October 16, 2006
140 Barrows Hall
UC Berkeley
Co-Sponsored by the Center for British Studies
Office for History of Science and Technology, 543 Stephens Hall #2350
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-2350
tel: (510) 642-4581, e-mail: ohst@berkeley.edu
