IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/cliomt/v14y2020i3d10.1007_s11698-019-00195-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The manufacturing comparative advantages of late-Victorian Britain

Author

Listed:
  • Brian D. Varian

    (Swansea University)

Abstract

This article constructs indicators of revealed comparative advantage for 18 British manufacturing industries for the years 1880, 1890, and 1900. These indicators constitute the earliest systematic measurements of the relative performance of British industries. The indicators are then employed in a four-factor Heckscher–Ohlin model of trade, with the factors being capital, labour, material inputs, and human capital. Contrary to the previous literature, the manufacturing comparative advantages of late-Victorian Britain were not in the relatively labour-intensive industries. By 1890, there was a distinctly labour-economizing regime within British manufacturing. Contributing to this pattern of within-sector specialization were emigration from Britain and the full absorption of displaced agricultural labour into the manufacturing sector. This article concludes with the suggestion that, in the late-Victorian era, British and American manufacturing were not so dissimilar, at least relative to Continental manufacturing.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian D. Varian, 2020. "The manufacturing comparative advantages of late-Victorian Britain," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 14(3), pages 479-506, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:cliomt:v:14:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11698-019-00195-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11698-019-00195-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11698-019-00195-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11698-019-00195-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Broadberry, S. N. & Crafts, N. F. R., 1992. "Britain's Productivity Gap in the 1930s: Some Neglected Factors," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(3), pages 531-558, September.
    2. Harley, C. K., 1974. "Skilled labour and the choice of technique in Edwardian industry," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 391-414.
    3. Brian Beach & W. Walker Hanlon, 2018. "Coal Smoke and Mortality in an Early Industrial Economy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(615), pages 2652-2675, November.
    4. French, Scott, 2017. "Revealed comparative advantage: What is it good for?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 83-103.
    5. Rosés, Joan R., 1998. "Measuring the contribution of human capital to the development of the Catalan factory system (1830–61)," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 25-48, April.
    6. Temin, Peter, 1997. "Two Views of the British Industrial Revolution," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(1), pages 63-82, March.
    7. Jacks, David S. & Meissner, Christopher M. & Novy, Dennis, 2010. "Trade costs in the first wave of globalization," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 127-141, April.
    8. H. Tyszynski, 1951. "World Trade in Manufactured Commodities, 1899‐19501," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 19(3), pages 272-304, September.
    9. Dornbusch, Rudiger & Fischer, Stanley & Samuelson, Paul A, 1977. "Comparative Advantage, Trade, and Payments in a Ricardian Model with a Continuum of Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 823-839, December.
    10. KrisJames Mitchener & Marc Weidenmier, 2008. "Trade and Empire," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(533), pages 1805-1834, November.
    11. Hatton, Timothy J. & Williamson, Jeffrey G., 1998. "The Age of Mass Migration: Causes and Economic Impact," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195116519.
    12. Broadberry,Steve N., 2005. "The Productivity Race," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521023580.
    13. Crafts, N F R & Thomas, Mark, 1986. "Comparative Advantage in UK Manufacturing Trade, 1910-1935," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(383), pages 629-645, September.
    14. A. G. Ford, 1963. "Notes on the Role of Exports in British Economic Fluctuations, 1870–1914," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 16(2), pages 328-337, December.
    15. A.E. Musson, 1976. "Industrial Motive Power in the United Kingdom, 1800–70," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 29(3), pages 415-439, August.
    16. Wright, Gavin, 1990. "The Origins of American Industrial Success, 1879-1940," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(4), pages 651-668, September.
    17. Douglas A. Irwin, 2003. "Explaining America's Surge in Manufactured Exports, 1880-1913," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(2), pages 364-376, May.
    18. Arnaud Costinot & Dave Donaldson & Ivana Komunjer, 2012. "What Goods Do Countries Trade? A Quantitative Exploration of Ricardo's Ideas," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(2), pages 581-608.
    19. Thomas Vollrath, 1991. "A theoretical evaluation of alternative trade intensity measures of revealed comparative advantage," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 127(2), pages 265-280, June.
    20. Brian D. Varian, 2018. "Anglo†American trade costs during the first era of globalization: the contribution of a bilateral tariff series," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 71(1), pages 190-212, February.
    21. Keld Laursen, 2015. "Revealed comparative advantage and the alternatives as measures of international specialization," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 5(1), pages 99-115, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leslie Hannah & Robert Bennett, 2022. "Large‐scale Victorian manufacturers: Reconstructing the lost 1881 UK employer census," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(3), pages 830-856, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin Grančay & Tomáš Dudáš, 2019. "Bilateral trade flows and comparative advantage: does the size matter?," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 41(4), pages 397-413, December.
    2. Stéphane Becuwe & Bertrand Blancheton & Christopher M Meissner, 2018. "Stages of diversification: France, 1836–1938," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 22(4), pages 430-461.
    3. Stellian, Rémi & Danna-Buitrago, Jenny Paola, 2022. "Which revealed comparative advantage index to choose? Theoretical and empirical considerations," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), December.
    4. Jenny P. Danna-Buitrago & Rémi Stellian, 2022. "A New Class of Revealed Comparative Advantage Indexes," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 477-503, July.
    5. Stellian, Rémi & Danna-Buitrago, Jenny P., 2022. "Revealed Comparative Advantage and Contribution-to-the-Trade-Balance indexes," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 129-155.
    6. Falkowski Krzysztof, 2017. "Long-Term Comparative Advantages of the Eurasian Economic Union Member States in International Trade," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 53(4), pages 27-49, December.
    7. Martin Grančay & Tomáš Dudáš & Ladislav Mura, 2022. "Revealed comparative advantages in academic publishing of “old” and “new” European Union Member States 1998–2018," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(3), pages 1247-1271, March.
    8. Brian D. Varian, 2023. "British exports and foreign tariffs: Insights from the Board of Trade's foreign tariff compilation for 1902," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(3), pages 827-843, August.
    9. bertrand blancheton & becuwe stephane & meissner chrispother, 2016. "The First Great Liberalization : Competition, Quality and Productivity," EcoMod2016 9248, EcoMod.
    10. Allen, Robert C., 2014. "American Exceptionalism as a Problem in Global History," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 309-350, June.
    11. Jacks, David S. & Meissner, Christopher M. & Novy, Dennis, 2011. "Trade booms, trade busts, and trade costs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 185-201, March.
    12. Iglesias, Matias Nehuen, 2021. "Measuring size distortions of location quotients," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 189-205.
    13. Satyendra Nath Chakrabartty, 2023. "Constructing Aggregated Revealed Comparative Advantage Index of a Country," Journal of Asian Economic Integration, , vol. 5(1), pages 64-77, April.
    14. Epede, Mesumbe Bianca & Wang, Daoping, 2022. "Competitiveness and upgrading in global value chains: A multiple-country analysis of the wooden furniture industry," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    15. Brian D. Varian, 2017. "British Capital and Merchandise Exports, 1870–1913: The Bilateral Case of New Zealand," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(2), pages 239-262, July.
    16. Philipp Ager & Markus Brueckner, 2018. "Immigrants' Genes: Genetic Diversity And Economic Development In The United States," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(2), pages 1149-1164, April.
    17. Gordeev, Roman, 2020. "Comparative advantages of Russian forest products on the global market," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    18. Andrei A Levchenko & Jing Zhang, 2013. "The Global Labor Market Impact of Emerging Giants: A Quantitative Assessment," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 61(3), pages 479-519, August.
    19. Jonathan Eaton & Samuel Kortum & Brent Neiman & John Romalis, 2016. "Trade and the Global Recession," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(11), pages 3401-3438, November.
    20. William R Kerr, 2018. "Heterogeneous Technology Diffusion and Ricardian Trade Patterns," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 32(1), pages 163-182.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Manufacturing; Comparative advantage; Britain; Nineteenth century;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F11 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Neoclassical Models of Trade
    • N63 - Economic History - - Manufacturing and Construction - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N73 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Europe: Pre-1913

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:cliomt:v:14:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11698-019-00195-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.