Since invention was an economic activity, its pace and character depended on factors that affected business profits including, in particular, input prices. Why the industrial revolution happened in eighteenth century Britain is easier to understand if we compare wage rates and energy prices in the leading economies of the day. In these comparisons, Britain stands out as a high wage, cheap energy economy. Our views of British wages are dominated by standard of living debate. Even optimists who believe the real wage rose in the Industrial Revolution accept that wages were low in the eighteenth century. They were certainly lower than they are today, but recent research in wage and price history shows that Britain was a high wage economy in four senses: 1. At the exchange rate, British wages were higher than those of its competitors. 2. High silver wages translated into higher living standards than elsewhere. 3. British wages were high relative to capital prices. 4. Wages in northern and western Britain were exceptionally high relative to energy prices. These trends are illustrated in . These figures were constructed from databases of wages and prices assembled from price histories written since the middle of the nineteenth century. The typical price history is based on the archives of an institution that lasted for hundres of years–colleges and hospitals are favourites. The historian works through their accounts recording the quantity and price of everything bought or sold and draws up tables of the annual averages. Usually prices are found for a range of agricultural and food stuffs as well as cloth, fuel, candles, building materials, implements, and a miscellany of other items. Wages and salaries are often also recorded. The commodities are measured in local weights and measures, and prices are stated in local units of account, and these must be converted to international standards. Prices histories have been written for