Blog Post

AEIdeas

The other day I wrote a fun little post about the rise of clockmaking in Europe — “What the history of England’s clockmakers tells us about free enterprise and prosperity” — and why England had the edge over France, based on the book, “The Discoverers.” (Spoiler: Freer labor markets.)

After I tweeted about the post, I saw this odd retweet from columnist Ann Coulter:

Now I am not sure exactly what the point of that comment was, whether she was making one about genetic determinism or some such. But as it turns out, economist Deirdre McCloskey addresses the issue of why the Industrial Revolution and Great Enrichment started in northern Europe and not elsewhere. A different perspective, from her new book, “Bourgeois Equality”:

And when other nations and cultures embrace what McCloskey calls the “Bourgeois Deal”, they get rich, too. Again, McCloskey: “Let me creatively destroy the old and bad ways of doing things, the scythes, ox carts, oil lamps, propeller planes, film cameras, and factory lacking high-tech robots, and I will make you all rich.”