The Wider Horizons of ‘Industrial’ Innovation

Abstract

In these times of forceful specialisation there are not many polyhistors left. But one of them could embark on an exciting study by selecting and describing those innovations which have exercised a major influence on the political, social and economic history of mankind, those new departures which through millenia and centuries have contributed in an important manner to the shaping of the way of life on this planet. I would venture to guess that their classification, however crude, would indicate that there have been at least as many — and possibly many more — major innovations, with significant implications on the course of history, stemming from sectors and activities outside industry as from within industry proper. They may have originated in agriculture, in areas which we consider today as ‘services’, or in political, social or economic institutions. They may have been of an organisational nature or have taken a more tangible form of productive or other hardware.