Without the Industrial Revolution, there would be no modern
agriculture, no modern medicine, no climate change, no
population boom. A rapid-fire series of inventions reshaped one
economy after another, eventually affecting the lives of every
person on the planet. But exactly how it all began is still the
subject of intense debate among scholars. Three economists,
Raouf Boucekkine, Dominique Peeters, and David de la Croix,
think population density had something to do with it. Their
argument is relatively simple: The Industrial Revolution was
fostered by a surge in literacy rates. Improvements in reading
and writing were nurtured by the spread of schools. And the
founding of schools was aided by rising population density.
Unlike violent revolutions where monarchs lost their heads, the
Industrial Revolution had no specific powder-keg. Though if you
had to trace it to one event, James Hargreaves’ invention of the
spinning jenny would be as good as any. Hargreaves, a weaver
from Lancashire, England, devised a mach