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Technology and Culture 41.2 (2000) 355-357



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Book Review

Industrial Espionage and Technology Transfer: Britain and France in the Eighteenth Century *


Industrial Espionage and Technology Transfer: Britain and France in the Eighteenth Century, By J. R. Harris. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998. Pp. xviii+655; illustrations, notes/references, bibliography, index. $110.95.

Even before publication this work was recognized as a masterpiece by those best qualified to judge, namely, François Crouzet and Peter Mathias. Their verdict will be endorsed by all who are fortunate enough to read it. Its subject is important and its approach persuasive. The book focuses on the transformation of Britain into the world's leading industrial power, a revolution it dates between the 1690s and the 1750s. That revolution altered the balance of power in Europe, changing Britain from an importer of foreign technology into an exporter of its own newly developed processes of production. John Harris explains clearly how the transformation occurred. He identifies the key to British success in the high caliber of its craftsmen, in their inventive capacity, in the quality of their tools, and in the extending and productive division of labor.

Even more fundamental was the rise of the first coal-fuel economy in history, which effected the great transition from organic to inorganic sources of fuel. This new and unprecedented trend affected first the nonferrous metal trades and then, between 1709 and the 1750s, the vital iron industry itself. It valorized Britain's vast mineral reserves and, because coal was relatively inexpensive, endowed it with a large comparative advantage. It also effected a radical change in technology itself by gearing society up to a continuing process of systematic rational invention and innovation. That process made the eighteenth century an era of unexampled progress, which compels one to discount the belief expressed by Edmund Burke in 1790 in "our sullen resistance to innovation."

Europe proved quick to respond to the new constellation of forces. Led by Sweden and France, foreign states sought to learn the secrets behind Britain's industrial achievements and to transfer the new techniques to their own lands. Thus the theme of industrial espionage broadens into the larger one of technology transfer. Between 1710 and 1800 perhaps a thousand [End Page 355] British artisans were persuaded to migrate to France. That state failed, however, to emulate British achievements or even to narrow the gap in productivity. It proved unable to recruit the best British artisans or to train French artisans of comparable quality in British methods of manufacture. French ministers relied overmuch upon the advice of scientists and Academicians, who lacked any experience in the practical processes of production.

In allotting pride of place to the skilled mechanic, Harris explains why Britain forbade the emigration of artisans as early as 1719, long before it prohibited the export of machines in 1785. The skills of such artisans remained of crucial importance in transferring techniques from Britain to other states. By contrast, the utility of plans, drawings, and even models of machinery remained limited. In exalting the creative role of the artisan at the expense of the scientist, Harris has vindicated the trenchant iconoclasm of Michael Fores.

John Harris (1923-97) was a scholar of wide-ranging interests who pioneered the study of the history of business, technology, and shipping as well as of regional history. He proved well suited to this particular undertaking and indeed devoted fifty years of his life to the task, beginning with the preparation of weighty theses upon St. Helens (1950) and the copper industry (1952). His seminal articles in History (1967, 1976) remain landmarks in the historiography of the Industrial Revolution and have come to full fruition in the present work. Harris's procedures may well disturb disciples of the postmodernist school of thought: he has shown the immense value of "naive empiricism" in historical research. He has trawled through masses of unexplored archives in Rouen, Lorient, Saint Gobain, Le Creusot, and Lyons as well as in Paris. His investigations ranged far beyond the frontiers of France to embrace...

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