Nicholas Crafts

Nicholas Francis Robert Crafts CBE (9 March 1949 – 6 October 2023) was a British economist who was known for his contributions to economic history, in particular on the Industrial Revolution.

His main fields of interest were the British economy in the last 200 years, European economic growth, historical data on the British economy, the Industrial Revolution and international income distribution, especially with reference to the Human Development Index.

When Britain was overtaken by Germany and the USA - both larger countries - in the late nineteenth century, this was not because of any deceleration of British performance.

[2] Crafts was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to economics.

The found that the overall rate of growth was much lower than had previously been believed, and was heavily concentrated in two industries: cotton and iron.