← All papers

Slavery and the British Industrial Revolution

Stephan Heblich, Stephen J. Redding, Hans-Joachim Voth

Revision requested, Review of Economic Studies

Download PDF SSRN NBER wp VoxEU podcast TradeTalks

Abstract

We provide theory and evidence on the contribution of slavery wealth to Britain's economic development prior to the abolition of slavery in 1833. We combine data on individual slaveholders from compensation records, an exogenous source of variation in slavery wealth from weather-induced shocks to mortality of the enslaved during the middle passage, and a quantitative spatial model.

Keywords
slavery, Industrial Revolution, Britain, slave wealth, economic development
JEL
Not specified
Canonical
https://www.jvoth.com/papers/slavery-british-industrial-revolution.html

Stephan Heblich, Stephen J. Redding, Hans-Joachim Voth (2022). “Slavery and the British Industrial Revolution.” Revision requested, Review of Economic Studies.