[pastProlog]

One reason the Industrial Revolution happened in northern England is manor lords began seizing the land that belonged in common to the peasants and enclosing it. Newly impoverished peasants would then become cheap labor for industrial factories. This is similar to what Deng Xiaoping and his successors did in China over the past few decades.

[dredmorbius]

The Enclosure acts and Poor Laws. Discussed in Smith. Possibly also Toynbe's Lectures on the Industrial Revolution, though I'd need to confirm.

[yuhong]

What is also fun is what Richard Duncan is calling "creditism", which technically actually started with Japan beating US. Before this there was the gold standard.