Technikatörténeti szemle 11. (1979)

TANULMÁNYOK - Endrei Walter: Industrial revolution in the middle ages?

ENDREI WALTER'

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN THE MIDDLE AGES?* **

It was Mrs. Carus-Wilson, the late lamented historian who introduced this concept and — though it has not become part and parcel of the accepted terminology — due notice has been taken of the acceleration of a process in the technical field, one that has transformed the structure of mediaeval economy and society. Already before her Lefebre de Noettes and Bloch, and afterwards Gille and White were arguing along these lines, and White’s brilliant reasoning has brought to light essential parts of the internal kinetics of this phenomenon.

It is well known that some, like Cipolla negate such a turn and, apart from the neolithic agrarian revolution, acknowledge only the epoch-making importance of the industrial revolution of the 18th—19th century. There again are others who talk about a series of industrial revolutions: Kuczynski gives his book the title of „The Four Revolutions of the Forces of Production”.

One cannot deny that there is a startling similarity in the acceleration of intellectual life, the exploitation of the various types of energy, the development of technology and to a certain degree also in the growing intensity of class struggle of the 11th—14th centuries with similar symptoms of later ages. The more is known of medieval sources, the stronger becomes our impression that revolutionary changes did force their way through these „Dark Ages”. Because not only the final development of feudal society goes back to this era but so do the roots of European technological hegemony. Up to the 11th century European technics had been advancing on impetus from outside, in the mentioned period under review, however, Europe started to form her own technology and — as Needham points out — from the 15th century onwards she became definitely a donor, the rest of the world receiving stimulation from her.

The autochton innovations that radically transformed the production of the period left no branch of economy unaffected. To give a few examples:

— In agriculture considerable increase of productivity was due to the heavy plough and the collar harness;

— The better use of energy has led to the tapping of new energy sources such

* Hungarotex, Budapest, V. Szép utca 2.

** Paper read at the XVth International Congress of the History of Science and Technology (Edinburgh 1977).

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