2 The Laissez-Faire Revolution and Smithian Economics . The Laissez-Faire Revolution . The preconditions of the Industrial Revolution The 35-year period from the beginning of the Austrian War of Succession in 1741 to the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 was of critical importance for the history of Europe | 2 The Laissez-Faire Revolution and Smithian Economics . The Laissez-Faire Revolution . The preconditions of the Industrial Revolution The 35-year period from the beginning of the Austrian War of Succession in 1741 to the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 was of critical importance for the history of Europe as well as for the history of economic thought. It was a period of profound political crisis as shown by the 25 years of war among the most barbarous in European history at one time or another involving each of the great powers the Austrian War of Succession 1741-8 the colonial war between England France and Spain 1754-63 the Seven Years War 1756-63 and the Russian-Turkish War 1768-74 . One of the main results of this political crisis was the beginning of England s military political and economic dominance in Europe. An important economic transformation of this period was the spread of capitalism in the countryside which was a fairly rapid process in France and England. In France at least in the northern regions Picardy Normandy and the province of Paris a new social figure emerged the fermier a tenant farmer who invested his own money in the improvement of productive techniques and in the enlargement of his farm. In England the process was facilitated by the enclosure movement which begun more than two centuries before experienced a real boom from 1760 onwards. Among the most important consequences were the major technical innovations in cultivation methods the connected increase in agricultural productivity and production and the acceleration of the expulsion of the agricultural workers from the countryside. If we add the fact that beginning from 1740 there was an acceleration in demographic growth it is easy to understand why the takeoff of the Industrial Revolution that occurred towards the end of this period was not hindered by lack of workers and means of subsistence which had been one of the main concerns of the mercantilists. Thus .
