Industrial Growth and Social Mobility in England, 1540-1640

Abstract

In a recent article Richard Brown examined economic development in early modern England in the light of sociological theories of entrepreneurship.l Brown's argument posited as the dependent variable 'the rapid expansion of industrial capitalism between I540 and I640'. The factor singled out to explain this supposed growth of industrial capitalism is the influence of an Cachievement norm' upon entrepreneurs. Specifically, the argument is that entrepreneurs were motivated to achieve success in business in order to rise into the landed upper classes, whose social status was higher than that of merchants and industrialists.2 According to Brown,3 therefore, this 'achievement norm' was the 'underlying determining variable' in the growth of industrial capitalism in early modern England. Brown's explanation of the rise of industrial capitalism in England is praiseworthy in that it cuts across the traditional disciplines of history and sociology. Unfortunately his attempt comes to grief because his historical analysis is out of date and misinformed about the economic developments of the period. Brown may be correct in thinking that achievement-oriented entrepreneurs were important in such industrial expansion as occurred in the period and that they sought success in trade and industry in order to move into landed society, but on both points one would like to see more substantial evidence than he provides. Thus, the idea that successful entrepreneurs moved out of trade and industry into the landed classes has not to my knowledge been proven for a significant part of the entrepreneurial class. The 'haemorrhage of capital' into land, although a plausible assumption suggested by some well-known examples, remains an assumption nonetheless with regard to the entrepreneurial class as a whole. Moreover, it is now apparent from the work of Lawrence Stone that the 'middle classes' were not the only active entrepreneurs in industry in the period; noblemen, too, were active in such enterprises, and surely it would be ridiculous to