Industrial revolution Quote by Daron Acemoğlu
““Where was innovation to come from? We have argued that innovation comes from new people with new ideas, developing new solutions to old problems. In Rome the people doing the producing were slaves and, later, semi-servile coloni with few incentives to innovate, since it was their masters, not they, who stood to benefit from any innovation. As we will see many times in this book, economies based on the repression of labor and systems such as slavery and serfdom are notoriously noninnovative. This is true from the ancient world to the modern era. In the United States, for example, the northern states took part in the Industrial Revolution, not the South. Of course slavery and serfdom created huge wealth for those who owned the slaves and controlled the serfs, but it did not create technological innovation or prosperity for society. N””
About This Quote
Source Book: Economic Origins of Inequality, Daron Acemoğlu & James A. Robinson, 2012
Innovation thrives where people have incentives and freedom to create, while oppressive labor systems stifle progress.
In simple terms: Freedom and incentives drive innovation; oppression hinders it.
Key Takeaway
Promote freedom and incentives for innovation.
Themes
economics
history
innovation
labor
inequality
Mood
analytical
critical
thought‑provoking
Type
philosophical
inspirational
When to use this quote
- policy design
- education reform
- entrepreneurial support
- labor market reforms
Key Concepts
incentive structures
property rights
human capital
Questions to Reflect On
- How do incentives shape technological progress?
- What policies can replace oppressive labor structures?
A Different Perspective
Oppressive systems can still generate wealth for elites without broader societal benefits.
![“An economy built on slave labor is vulnerable in two ways. One, availability of forced labor discourages technical innovation. The very wealthy [Roman]empire experienced no industrial revolutions. Two -- even more crucial -- slaves do not reproduce their own numbers. As Rome's wars of conquest…” quote by Norman F. Cantor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c24/norman-f-cantor-15048_economics_an-economy-built-on-slave-labor-is-vulne_2164303.jpg)
