Back in 1750 before the Industrial Revolution, most world manufacturing was in China (33%) and India (25%). Such manufacturing was labour intensive and inefficient.
By 1913, Chinese and Indian shares of world manufacturing had dropped to 4% and 1% respectively. This change was due to trade and industrialization.
Cheap, plentiful energy (mostly coal) enabled industrialization. Allowing us to replace human and animal labour with machine power (the steam engine) and automation. Which, in turn, leads to productivity increases; meaning getting more done with less labour time. Finally leading to lower prices. Such that Indian and Chinese manufacturers could not compete, on price, with mass-produced Western goods.
The modern Western green agenda is an explicit de-industrialization strategy designed to induce poverty. In the UK it has been so successful that, in the past 22 years, UK experienced NO labour productivity increases at all. Nowt since 2002.
Citations:
- Global Economic History - a very short introduction, by Robert C Allen. OUP, 2011.
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