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Adam Smith, Watch Prices, and the Industrial Revolution *
Abstract
Although largely absent from modern accounts of the Industrial Revolution, watches were the first mass-produced consumer durable and were Adam Smith’s preeminent example of technological progress. In fact, Smith makes the notable claim that watch prices may have fallen by up to 95% over the preceding century, a claim that this article attempts to evaluate. We look at changes in the reported value of over 3,200 stolen watches from criminal trials in the Old Bailey in London from 1685 to 1810. Before allowing for quality improvements, we find that the real price of watches in nearly all categories falls steadily by 1.3% a year, equivalent to a fall of 75% over a century, showing that sustained innovation in the production of a highly complex artifact had already appeared in one important sector of the British economy by the early eighteenth century.
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Liverpool was the hub of a watchmaking industry in the mid-eighteenth century, noted for its large size and intensive division of labour.
“Liverpool was the hub of a watchmaking industry already noted in the mid-eighteenth century (not least by Adam Smith) for its large size and intensive division of labour”
From The Mechanics of the Industrial Revolution (2023) · cites this paper as Kelly and Ó Gráda, 2016
Section 5, “The Evolution of the English Watch Industry” (page unavailable), says watchmaking had an extensive division of labour by the mid-eighteenth century and was concentrated around Prescot near Liverpool. It identifies Prescot—not Liverpool itself—as the centre of Lancashire watchmaking, and the cited passages do not establish the size of that local industry in the mid-eighteenth century. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe balance spring led directly to England's large watchmaking industry.
“It was in an effort to make a usable”
From The Mechanics of the Industrial Revolution (2023) · cites this paper as Kelly and Ó Gráda, 2016
A very similar process of incremental improvement is observed for the eighteenth century English watchmaking industry.
“A very similar process is observed for the eighteenth century English watchmaking industry (Kelly and Ó Gráda, 2016).”
From The Mechanics of the Industrial Revolution (2023) · cites this paper as Kelly and Ó Gráda, 2016
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Citations
Cites
Industrialization and Regional Inequality: Wages in Britain, 1760–1914
Hunt, E. H. (1986) · The Journal of Economic History · doi:10.1017/s0022050700050658 · Cited by 226
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Cited by
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The Mechanics of the Industrial Revolution
Kelly, M., Mokyr, J., & Ó Gráda, C. (2023) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/720890 · Cited by 70
“…cotton industry was that its easy access to the skills of a large agglomeration of watchmakers and watch-tool makers, whose highly developed division of labor and specialized tools made them Adam Smith ’ s chosen example of technological progress (Allen 2009a, 205 – 6; Kelly and Ó Gr á da 2016).”
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Kelly, M., & Ó Gráda, C.
- Affiliations
- University College Dublin (IE)
- ORCID
- Kelly, Morgan
- Venue
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2016-09-16
- Volume
- 131
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1727-1752
- ISSN
- 0033-5533 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-4650
- OpenAlex
- W1601384700
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3
- FWCI
- 8.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Historical Economic and Social Studies
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Historical Economic and Legal Thought
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Growth and Productivity
- Keywords
- Adam Smith, Industrial Revolution, technological progress, mass production, durable goods, price history, Old Bailey, criminal trials, UK economy, 18th century
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