ABSTRACT
Under a strong impulse from the industrial revolution, Great Britain’s medieval industrial economy was moulded into a modern structure through a higher trajectory of growth. Individuals’ profit instinct must have played a pivotal role in that process of transformation and development. Technological innovations that ignited the revolution spread across the economy, guaranteeing high profitability only to those stakeholders who implemented them in a befitting manner. In their pursuit of appropriate application of new technologies, individuals ushered in a new industrial system, shifting production from cottages to factories, and also a new industrial organization whereby joint stock companies largely replaced previous ownership patterns. But technology never told the entire story. Raw materials could be sourced advantageously across borders; and global markets could be accessed smoothly. The state was certainly instrumental in achieving these ends. Repeatedly we have found the state to have been motivated to act as an agent of development. In so far as the role of the state was limited to ensuring a smooth flow of inputs and outputs free of coercion, a congenial market environment was created whereby individual instincts were satisfied. But many a time in the past individuals motivated the state to act on their behalf to compensate their deficiency in technology-based advantages vis-à-vis the labour- (or, other input-)based comparative advantage that might prevail elsewhere. Such acts of the state falsified the sway of market forces in general, and of comparative advantage in particular. Great Britain exemplified both in the course of its industrial revolution.
