This article constructs indicators of revealed comparative advantage for 18 British manufacturing industries for the years 1880, 1890, and 1900. These indicators constitute the earliest systematic measurements of the relative performance of British industries. The indicators are then employed in a four-factor Heckscher–Ohlin model of trade, with the factors being capital, labour, material inputs, and human capital. Contrary to the previous literature, the manufacturing comparative advantages of late-Victorian Britain were not in the relatively labour-intensive industries. By 1890, there was a distinctly labour-economizing regime within British manufacturing. Contributing to this pattern of within-sector specialization were emigration from Britain and the full absorption of displaced agricultural labour into the manufacturing sector. This article concludes with the suggestion that, in the late-Victorian era, British and American manufacturing were not so dissimilar, at least relative to Continental manufacturing.

本文构建了1880年，1890年和1900年英国18个制造业的显着比较优势的指标。这些指标构成了对英国工业相对绩效的最早系统衡量。然后将这些指标用于Heckscher-Ohlin四要素贸易模型中，这些要素包括资本，劳动力，物质投入和人力资本。与先前的文献相反，晚期维多利亚时期英国的制造业比较优势并不属于劳动密集型产业。到1890年，英国制造业内部建立了明显的劳动力节约型制度。部门内专业化的这种模式的促成因素是英国移民以及将流离失所的农业劳动力充分吸收到制造业中。