Ralph Davis. A Commercial Revolution (1967)

     Ralph Davis. A Commercial Revolution (1967) Davis summarises the case that a revolution in import-export trade from the late 1500s to the late 1700s preceded and prepared for the Industrial Revolution. One has to trust his generalisations, since he has very few numbers to illustrate his argument. He describes how English trade shifted from exporting woollens to Europe to exporting manufactures to America, and importing and re-exporting raw materials from there and from Asia (mostly India.) The most interesting point is that the rapid expansion of capital to finance the increasingly long transport routes put in place the capital markets that financed the Industrial Revolution. Also, the increasing wealth of the American colonies stimulated the production of the manufactured goods they needed, which prepared for the Industrial Revolution. A complicated tale; Davis’s summary is clear enough. ** (2006)