Is War Necessary for Economic Growth?

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Is War Necessary for Economic Growth?

It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of the historical role that military
procurement has played in the process of technology development. Knowledge
acquired in making weapons was an important source of the industrial revolution.
To bore the condenser cylinders for his steam engines, “Watt had to turn to John
Wilkinson, a cannon-borer, who had invented the one machine in all England that
could drill through a block of cast iron with accuracy” (Kaempffert 1941, p. 435).
In France, the navy provided the market that gave French entrepreneurs an opportunity
to catch up with British advances in ferrous metallurgy (McNeill 1982,
pp. 177, 211–212). In the United States, what came to be termed the American
system of manufacturing emerged from the New England armory system of gun
manufacture (Rosenberg 1972, pp. 87–116; Smith 1985, pp. 39–86). During almost
every year since World War II, defense and defense-related research and
technology development expenditures have accounted for at least two thirds of all
U.S. federal government research and development (R&D) expenditures (National
Science Board 2004, pp. A4, 60)

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Author(s)

Vernon W. Ruttan - Personal Name

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