ABSTRACT
The Yorkshire wool textile area was a classic dynamic industrial district between 1700 and 1850. It played a full part in the development of the new technology associated with the industrial revolution, but this was only one element in the wresting of competitive advantage from the traditional leaders of the industry in England. The woollen sector in particular showed strong continuity with the past in its business structures and institutional framework, and this helped to get communities to push for change rather than fighting it. Moreover, West Yorkshire had an extremely complex economy which, in conjunction with an open and varied social structure, created the ideal landscape for evolutionary processes to work themselves out. It is also argued that this complexity allowed the links between clothiers and merchants to act as information processing systems analogous to neural networks, and that they were capable of generating apparently intelligent strategic action at the system level without requiring central control or deliberate co-ordination.
