Technological Interrelatedness and Lock-In in the British Economy, 1870–1930

By the turn of the twentieth century, the resources of the British economy were concentrated in the production of a narrow range of output emanating from staple industries such as cotton and coal, and in traditional (that is, mid nineteenth century) techniques of production. In 1907, 46 per cent of Britain’s net industrial output was accounted for by just three industries — coal, iron and steel, and textiles (Aldcroft, 1968, p. 23).1 As was noted in Chapter 6, the same industries also dominated Britain’s exports. For example, cotton textiles alone made up 25 per cent of Britain’s total visible exports in 1910, whilst textiles as a whole accounted for fully 37 per cent (Elbaum, 1990, p. 1257). At the same time, Britain’s manufacturers were slow to adopt new technology. By 1913, for example, new ring frame technology accounted for 87 per cent of all spindles in the US cotton industry, compared to just 19 per cent in the British cotton industry (Lazonick, 1986, p. 19).