'Whichever economist you choose, the vertical spike at the end of the chart is astonishing. Slow steady improvements in technology, science, and economic standards in Europe sparked a major agricultural revolution about 1700. Those changes and improvements paved the way for the Industrial Revolution, which Maddison pegs as starting about 1820 in England, a few decades later than some historians might suggest. (While many inventions came into being in the late eighteenth century, Maddison believes noticeable economic impact can not be observed until around 1820.) Agricultural abundance, combined with rise of machine power, made it feasible for agricultural workers to leave the country for the factory jobs in the city'
