Pilot Regions in the History of Industrialization. Theoretical and Methodological Reflections for a Modern Economic History of Europe

Still today, the history of industrialization in Europe is primarily written within national boundaries. Yet, inter-state borders probably had a lesser impact on the spreading of industrialization than was previously assumed. They hardly affected technology, labour and capital transfers and they did not represent insurmountable obstacles for the exchange of goods, above all during the mid-XIXth century free-trade phase, but even later, when most European nations had returned to protectionist policies. This article explores the ways in which a new economic history of Europe could be written, from the standpoint of the region, which, since Sidney Pollard, seems to have been recognized as particularly suited to the analysis of the industrialization process. The means to this end will be the concept of pilot region. This paper advocates their identification by means such simple indicators as the strength of branch growth rates, their relative shares in the economy, their technological dynamism, the accompanying effects they have on other regions. This approach would permit to understand the industrialization process better than from within a national framework that too often appears unsuited to describe realities.