Industrial revolution from 1760 first led to better living standards in Europe & USA; Now billions in Asia benefit from it; WEF chief Brende on South Asian economy growth

Last updated on 5th Oct. 2019

Firstly, let us see how Industrial Revolution has contributed to improvement of standard of living:

Some points taken from introduction section of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution are given below:

* First Industrial Revolution was from 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. It involved transition from hand production methods to new manufacturing processes involving machines and mechanized factories in Europe and the United States.

* Textiles were the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment, value of output and capital invested. The textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods.[Ref: David S. Landes (1969). The Unbound Prometheus. Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. ISBN 978-0-521-09418-4.]

* The first industrial revolution was a major change event in history impacting lives of people. Average income and population started showing unprecedented sustained growth. Standard of living of people in Western societies started to improve. The wiki page states: "Economic historians are in agreement that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of animals and plants." [Ref:  McCloskey, Deidre (2004). "Review of The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain (edited by Roderick Floud and Paul Johnson), Times Higher Education Supplement, 15 January 2004".]

* Britain was the leading nation of this industrial revolution, and by mid-18th century (1750) Britain become the world's leading commercial nation with a global trading empire. Britain then had colonies in North America (USA was Britain's colony then) and Caribbean. Britain then had political influence on Indian subcontinent through the East India Company.

--- end points based on Industrial Revolution wiki ---

Full Episode | The Industrial Revolution | BBC Documentary, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYln_S2PVYA, 51 min. 13 secs, published by BBC Documentary on 9th Aug. 2018

From around 0:00, Voice-over: "In the hundred and fifty years from the beginning of the 18th century (1700), a revolution transformed the way we think, work and play, for ever. This is the Industrial Revolution and it started in Britain". Narrator: "Until then most people lived as they have done for generations - an agricultural existence, defined by the harvest and the seasons and ruled by a small political and social elite. But as the eighteenth century progressed, an unprecedented explosion of new ideas and new technological inventions transformed our use of energy creating an increasing industrial and urbanized country."

Around 15:20, "Soho became the first steam powered manufacturing plant in the world. It was a new kind of workplace. No longer would men, women and children (be) producing goods piecemeal in their homes. From now on, they toiled on production lines in great cathedrals of labour. The lives of workers were transformed for generations to come."

Ravi: But the industrial revolution itself would have needed an ideas revolution that promoted science & technology and reason. That I think was what is referred to as "Age of Enlightenment" in Europe.

Given below are extracts from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment :

The Age of Enlightenment (also known as the Age of Reason or simply the Enlightenment)[1][2] was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, the "Century of Philosophy".[3]

The Enlightenment emerged out of a European intellectual and scholarly movement known as Renaissance humanism. Some consider the publication of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica (1687) as the first major enlightenment work. French historians traditionally date the Enlightenment from 1715 to 1789, from the beginning of the reign of Louis XV until the French Revolution. Most end it with the turn of the 19th century. Philosophers and scientists of the period widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffeehouses and in printed books, journals, and pamphlets. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. A variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism and neoclassicism, trace their intellectual heritage to the Enlightenment.[4]

The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on reason as the primary source of knowledge and advanced ideals such as liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, constitutional government and separation of church and state.[5][6] In France, the central doctrines of the Enlightenment philosophers were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy—an attitude captured by the phrase Sapere aude (Dare to know).[7]

...
[Wiki Refs:]
1. Roberson, Rusty (2016), "Enlightened Piety during the Age of Benevolence: The Christian Knowledge Movement in the British Atlantic World", Church History, 85 (2): 246, doi:10.1017/S0009640716000391
2. French: le Siècle des Lumières, lit. 'the Century of Lights'; German: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; Italian: L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; Polish: Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; Spanish: La Ilustración, "Enlightenment")"Enlightenment", Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Online, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016, retrieved 13 June 2016
3. "The Age of Enlightenment: A History From Beginning to End: Chapter 3". publishinghau5.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2017. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
4. Eugen Weber, Movements, Currents, Trends: Aspects of European Thought in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (1992).
5. Outram, Dorinda (2006), Panorama of the Enlightenment, Getty Publications, p. 29, ISBN 9780892368617
6. Zafirovski, Milan (2010), The Enlightenment and Its Effects on Modern Society, p. 144
7. Gay, Peter (1996), The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-393-00870-3

--- end extracts from Age of Enlightenment wiki ---

Later industrial progress is broadly categorized as 2nd (1870s onwards), 3rd (1969 onwards) and 4th (Internet related) industrial revolutions (see https://www.sentryo.net/the-4-industrial-revolutions/).

Ravi: The impression I get from the above is that prior to 1760, most people (commoners) in Europe (and USA) led a tough life (poor standard of living) with a small group of leaders (elite) living a good or even luxurious life (high standard of living). This is how it would have been in India and China and many other parts of Asia. It seems to me that this has been the history of humanity in general till recent centuries - a small elite being the ruling classes (warrior-kings, warrior-nobles/warrior-chieftains and landowners supporting them, and the top-tiers of priestly classes supported by the earlier mentioned classes) having high standard of living with vast majority of people (commoners) being low standard of living working classes serving the elite classes.

I think it is the European age of reason and science and technology that ushered in a new age through the industrial revolution involving technological revolution, capitalism and large volume of trade. Unfortunately for Asian and many other countries of other continents beside Europe, European powers used the great power they got through this revolution to colonize/dominate and exploit them (India got colonized; most of China did not get colonized but was dominated by European powers after China was defeated in the Opium wars, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars).

However, India, China and other Asian countries who were way behind on science & technology and industrial revolution, eventually learned them and adopted them, over the course of a few centuries. And today in early 21st century, India, China and other Asian countries are also great beneficiaries of science & technology & industrial revolution, in terms of vastly improved standard of living for vast majority of their people, numbering billions (with me, my family & Indian friends being some of them)! I am in awe of the sentence I just typed! I think it is the plain truth. Billions of people in Asia today enjoy vastly improved standard of living as compared to a century ago, due to Asia learning and adopting science & technology and industrial revolution(s)! What a stupendous achievement of Asia, even if the original pioneering science & technology and business & trade innovation work was done by Europe (and later USA)!

Some may think I am going overboard by saying that billions of people in Asia have vastly improved standards of living now as compared to a century ago. I don't think so. Let us take just two indices for India: life expectancy and literacy.

http://indpaedia.com/ind/index.php/Life_Expectancy (page does not load at times; the related graph can be viewed here:  http://indpaedia.com/ind/images/2/2c/Life_expectancy_in_India_in_1901_2011.jpg): India shows life expectancy for males & females in India around 1919 to be in low twenties or even slightly lower than that. In 2011, the same life expectancy for males and females in India is in the 60s! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy shows Asia life expectancy in 1950 at just above 40 and in 2019 at the low 70s!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_India#Growth_of_literacy has a graph showing literacy in 1919 in India at slightly over 5%. It is in the low 70s in 2011. Just think about that for a minute - in 1919 access to education (literacy is a basic aspect of primary education without which further education possibilities get severely limited) would have been woefully limited resulting in only 5% of Indians being literate.

So I think I am not going overboard when I say that billions of people in Asia have vastly improved standards of living now as compared to a century ago. Note population of Asia in 2019 is 4.5 billion constituting 60% of world population as per wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia (which uses the reference:  "Population of Asia. 2019 demographics: density, ratios, growth rate, clock, rate of men to women", https://www.populationof.net/asia/ . Retrieved 2 June 2019.).

Now I would like to move to the recent article of World Economic Forum chief, Borge Brende.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B8rge_Brende, "Børge Brende (born 25 September 1965) is a Norwegian politician and diplomat of the Conservative Party serving as President of the World Economic Forum since 2017.[ Norway’s Børge Brende joins World Economic Forum, https://www.weforum.org/press/2017/09/norway-s-borge-brende-joins-world-economic-forum/, 15 September 2017, The New York Times.] He previously was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2017, Minister of the Environment from 2001 to 2004 and Minister of Trade and Industry from 2004 to 2005. He also was a member of the Norwegian Parliament from 1997 to 2009."

Brende has glowing words about South Asia and India's economic progress over past decades and years in his recent article: Innovating for India Impacting the World, https://www.narendramodi.in/reflections/innovating-for-india-impacting-the-world-65, 2nd Oct. 2019.

Small extract from it is given below:

"In the past half-century, emerging and developing economies have significantly enhanced their contribution to global output from around 15% to well above 50%. Underpinned by strong domestic demand, private consumption and investment, a growth projection of 7% speaks of South Asia’s resilience and strength to not only weather the global slowdown but also to contribute to propelling global growth forward."
--- end small extract from WEF chief Brende article ---

Ravi: Past half-century makes it around 1969 to 2019, which is most of my life (I was born in 1962). From 15% to well above 50% contribution to global output by emerging and developing economies, which I think would include most Asian, Latin American and African countries, is just awesome!

South Asia projected to contribute to propelling global growth is just so great to hear!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_continents_by_GDP_(nominal)#GDP_(nominal)_by_continents gives the following info. for 2019 GDP (nominal) by continents [Ref: "IMF DataMapper". International Monetary Fund. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 30 June 2019.]

Figures are in trillions of US $.

World GDP: 87.27

Asia: 31.58
North America: 24.43
Europe: 21.17
South America: 3.64
Africa: 2.45
Oceania: 1.63

[I thank wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extract(s) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever. I also thank WEF chief Brende and narendramodi.in for the small extract from Brende's article, and BBC Documentary for the small transcript snippet of its video shared in this post. ]