Industrial Revolutions and Consumption: A Common Model to the Various Periods of Industrialization

Working paperWhat was the role of consumption structure evolution in the industrialization phases of the Western world since the 18th century? To answer this question, we first ask the économical ad historical literature. We detify the main phases of consumption structure evolution and establish a plausible link between consumption structure evolutions and industrial revolutions. In particular, we show that an industrial revolution starts with a "smithian growth process",which is demand driven, and a "schumpeterian growth process" which is supply driven, one the new techniques adopted. We then model the role of consumption habits evolution in the schumpeterian growth process. Finally, we show that consumption habits evolutions can be endogenously explained if we introduce, in an original way, the concept of "commercial revolution", which appears to be mainly linked to schumpeterian growth processes