ABSTRACT
We have only to list the major changes in technology achieved during the 20th century to recognize that industrial progress, stemming from the 18th century, is part of a continuous – and accelerating – industrial revolution. The internal combustion engine, the car, the aeroplane, the telephone, radio, television, plastics, antibiotics, nuclear energy, the computer – all have made a major impact on production and everyday life. The sum of man’s technical achievements in that century is clearly far greater than the progress made in previous centuries.
The pace of change has accelerated through the last 500 years. The amount of time and resources devoted to learning has gone on rising and the improving means of communication have all contributed to speeding up the pace of change. Throughout time, increasing contact between peoples has contributed to the spread of knowledge, and the explosion of sea travel since the 15th century has increased trade and contact between different societies.
Our own knowledge of changes in production is exact so far as recent centuries are concerned. Our understanding of the scale and nature of change is far less precise. The technical landmarks, such as the printing press, the rotation of crops, the steam engine, the factory system, the great navigations, vaccination and so on, are well documented. They can be seen to be part of an accelerating wave of change that dwarfs the speed of technical innovation achieved by the countless ancestor generations which went before.
What is not so sure is why change happened at any particular instant. The exploitation of an invention is only made possible by applying an investment of other people’s labour. The society in question has to be able to create a surplus – savings – which can release some of its members from the essential tasks of feeding the community and ensuring its survival.
