ABSTRACT
The purpose of this essay is to advance our understanding of industrial development by describing the progress what economists call the “factors of production,” i.e., the inputs out of which food, clothing, and shelter are made. It is by no means clear, however, that the increase in our ability to produce food, clothing, and shelter that we call “the industrial revolution” was a direct result of an increase in the factors of production. In fact, the relation between the traditional factors of production-land, labor, and capital-and the ability of an economy to produce is far more complex than the use of the words “inputs” and “outputs” might suggest. We therefore introduce the discussion of the factors of production by an attempt to set forward the relations between these factors and industrial development that is the subject of this book.
