The Political Foundations of Modern Economic Growth: England, 1540-1800

Growth: England, I540-I800 In a recent article, North and Weingast argue that the political history of England in the period before the Industrial Revolution illustrates two important propositions: the first, that the establishment of secure and stable property rights for private citizens is a necessary and sufficient condition for economic growth, and the second, that the establishment of such rights depended on the creation of a representative democracy. Thus, they believe that there was an intimate connection between the Glorious Revolution of I688 and the Industrial Revolution of 1760 and thereafter.1 Many scholars cite England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as an example of how stable democratic politics causes economic growth. The Glorious Revolution replaced a corrupt, autocratic monarchy, which financed itself by a variety of extortionary means, with a political system in which Parliament, admittedly drawn from a limited franchise, controlled the monarch. This political system was remarkably stable. There were no coups, and few attempted coups, after I689, but an unbroken line of governments elected by a popular franchise. WhenJames II was deposed, the throne passed first to William of Orange and James' daughter Mary, and then to Mary's sister Anne. When Anne died childless in 1714 (despite giving birth to eighteen children),