ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the preceding chapters of the book. It discusses how the world economy was around 1820, when the initial period of postwar adjustment had been transited and the advanced nations faced up to their central economic task. Serious theories of the industrial revolution view the British industrial breakthrough at the end of the eighteenth century as the climax to a preceding process as well as the opening of a new phase in human history. Invention and innovation had become for the first time in history a more or less regular flow. A version of an upswing affected the contours of the world economy from the mid-1930s to the break in relative prices toward the end of the Korean War in 1951. From 1813, the industry began a phase of rapid expansion; the opening up of Australia was underway; and a new source of raw materials flowed into the world economy.
