ABSTRACT
By the end of the nineteenth century, the capital and market requirements for successful industrialisation had changed significantly. It also meant that when industrialisation did take place in countries, their tendency to adopt the most up-to-date technology in any particular industrial field almost invariably led to the emergence of industrial structures dominated by large firms. The rate of spread of modern industrial technology between regions and countries is also often influenced by the need to modify the technology before it can function successfully in a new environment. The need for modification if a new technology was to be transferred successfully to a new environment partly accounts for the length of the observed historical lag in the spread of industrialisation between regions and countries. Within the manufacturing sector of an industrialising economy the growth and development of the capital goods industries have a key part to play in the diffusion of new technology.
