Introduction and summary of the book
Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England is a book that lays bare the role of Africans towards Britain’s industrialization. Drawing on more than 20 years of studies on the field, Joseph Inikori, of University of Rochester, has written a thought provoking and convincing book on one of the classic subjects of our age: Britain’s industrialization process. The book covers the period between 1650 and 1850 and shows the vital role of expanding the Atlantic trade to the realization of England’s industrialization process.
The role of Africans in this process, the core focus of the book, is evaluated in terms of the part played by the diasporic Africans in extensive commodity production in the Americas- of which the widening Atlantic trade was a part- at a time when socioeconomic conditions in the Atlantic basin spurred small-scale production by native populations. In his work, Inikori tries to prove the notion this trade was vital to the success of the revolution.
Inikori presents the importance of the Atlantic trade to the success of Britain’s industrial revolution, and precisely, commerce with the Atlantic Basin, saying that Africans were central to this all important process, both as buyers and producers of trade commodities.. As he presents, the thought that trade was a motivation behind the revolution is barely a strong point, but it comes as an alternative to the domestically centered arguments that appear frequently in today’s literature.
Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England was first published in 2002 by the Cambridge University Press and is divided into nine chapters with the tenth chapter being the conclusion. Each chapter of the book handles a different aspect of the role of Africans in England’s industrialization process. To help in putting his points across, Inikori uses first hand information, for example, in page 60, he gives a table on “Growth of Industrial Output” while on page 61, he gives a table on “Changing structures of Industrial Value Added in Britain” (Inikori 60, 61).
He concludes the book with a table on the volume of goods that were imported by Britain. An example is Nick Craft’s figures showing the volume of raw materials exported to Britain between 1770 and 1830, to show the importance of African produced goods in the revolution.
Reception
The book has received mixed reviews among scholars. A review by Kevin O’Rourke (Trinity College, Dublin) notes the style used by Inikori to be that of the old-style economic historian: the author uses archival evidence and records to prove his point that the Atlantic trade was vital to Britain’s industrial revolution. Old-style history’s comparative advantage depends on using facts, and the ideas presented by the author here make his point clear.
O’Rourke notes the difficulty the writer goes through to prove that trade in external markets was the first cause of the revolution while internal factors came later, and this can be proved by the fact that the most developed parts of Britain during the revolution were those that excelled in trade. However, he admits that these developments might have been due the people’s steadfast in adopting new technologies.
He quotes a section of the book, “northern counties became leaders in overseas sales before they became leaders in technological innovation. Hence, it was their leadership in overseas sales that led to their leadership in technological innovation” (Inikori 478). O’Rourke contends that the author has not discussed Britain’s industrialization exhaustively, and there are many questions yet to be answered, for example, for Britain to import raw materials and finished products, it had to generate its own goods to create a trade balance, a fact rarely mentioned in the book.
Another review by Robert C. H. Sweeney (Memorial University of Newfoundland) starts by noting the two-fold nature of Inikori’s argument: the writer delves into reasons why the Industrial Revolution took place and why it is still important. The author reduces the revolution to a subject of technological advances reliant on foreign markets. This industrialization is explained by the broadening international trade without ever surveying the domestic markets: the writer ignores socioeconomic and demographic changes that took place in Britain as a result of the Atlantic trade. In short, Inikori ignores domestic developments in order to make his timeless model a success.
Sweeny notes the contradiction in the book: the writer intentionally pays tribute to C.L.R. James, Abram Harris, and Eric Williams, a past generation of progressive Afro-American scholarship. Sweeny interprets this as a censure on Anglo-centric racism. Towards the end of the book, Inikori concludes that the reason why plantations existed in the Americas but not in Africa was because such plantations were not viable, it never occurs to him that this would killed off slave trade and hence no gains from slave trade.
While both reviews mention the importance of international trade to Britain’s Industrial revolution as presented by the author, they note the author’s dismissal of domestic developments that facilitated the revolution. While O’Rourke notes that England had its own running industries prior to the revolution, and these industries facilitated the Atlantic trade, Sweeny mentions the importance of demographic and socioeconomic factors as tools that were too important to the revolution to be ignored. Both authors mention that Inikori ignores domestic developments in order to simplify his explanation of the role of Africans to Britain’s revolution, and to make his model on the revolution a success.
Critique
Inikori’s Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England attempts to describe the factors that led to Britain’s industrialization. The author succeeds in making his point, but it leads to one question: what was the role of the British in their industrialization? Was the revolution fully dependent on external markets? These are among some of the questions that Inikori fails to answer in his book. Apart from a few omissions, the work is convincing in the way he supports his ideas with factual information derived from archival data. His use of a variety of information sources is evident in the volume of citations: five full pages of citation. The book breaks new ground, especially on the Atlantic trade and the movement of trade commodities between the Americas, Africa and the West Indies.
Conclusion
The book is an extension of classroom notes and texts, and enables a deeper understanding of aspects of Britain’s industrialization that were not covered in class. It covers themes of industrialization, slave trade, and international trade (especially the Atlantic trade). The book is valuable and is a must-read in understanding historical contributions of Africans to industrialization in Britain.
Work Cited
Inikori, Joseph E. Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England: A Study in International Trade and Economic Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.