ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book presents five fairly different key industries from five time periods in five countries, stretching over a period of a quarter of a millennium, and still manages to find systematic similarities between them. Technological progress and industrial leadership are crucial for a state's economic growth and development, and ultimately for the state's prestige in the international system. Since cotton textiles represents the first phase of industrialization, technological change was slow, and its impact on the overall economy only moderate. Hence, human capital requirements were far less than were the case a century later. But in general, those countries that were behind in terms of human capital, failed to achieve industrial leadership. The British state neglected the education system during the early Industrial Revolution, and despite this, Britain grew to become an industrial superpower.
