Lessons from history: how Europe did (and didn’t) grow rich

The Industrial Revolution is seen as the spark that lit Europe's economic prosperity. In her analysis of markets over many hundreds of years, economist Dr Victoria Bateman presents a compelling argument for a broader global perspective. My research has built a picture of the evolution of markets across the long span of history using one particularly abundant data source - the prices of goods. Dr Victoria Bateman In the modern world, we take for granted the fact that our economies become richer and more sophisticated decade-on-decade - and that our grandchildren will live a better life than our own, just as we live a better life than our grandparents. However, for the greatest part of human history, the standard of living was low and subject to little improvement. One of the most important questions that economists seek to answer is how we made the shift from stagnation to continued growth, a shift commonly thought to have occurred with the Industrial Revolution in late 18th-century Britain. The stakes are clearly high: being able to answer this significant question would give us the potential to unlock millions of people from poverty across the world today.