. Veblen ch. 5 Instinct of Workmanship pg. 194-201

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 Vebeln starts this section with a discussion of those peoples of northern Europe who have apparently made the greatest advances in technological proficiency in the industrial age.  His claim is that they have not been under a filly patriarchal system and its attendant authoritative rule of government. They have been fragments in forms of local self government and have shown a  degree of skepticism towards religion for example. The important point has lees to do with the specifics of Veblen's analysis than with how he is performing a cultural analysis to understand how habits of thought or institutions are formed and altered over time that explain the economy.


He writes that northern Europeans were unable for whatever reason to excel in building great artifacts or civilizations but did excel in fighting and small-scale crafts. As he writes, “their best efficiency has rather run to those bull-headed deeds of force and those mechanic arts that touch closely on the domain of the inorganic forces” (Veblen, pg. 197, 1914).The N.E. were able to better adapt to the industrial age because of their built in focus on matter of fact insights where at the same time they lacked subtlety or “delicacy of manipulation”. Veblem does not necessarily view this as a positive; it should be said just that it is in his mind why the industrial revolution started in England and other parts of northern Europe. In particular, he points to the pulling away from any anthropomorphic characterization of agriculture but rather an understanding of the science of inanimate matter.


He makes some final points in this section leading up to page 201 that the peoples of northern europe were not ever fully assimilated into the catholic churches authoritative and patriarchal system. This meant that pagan preconceptions survived and the fight against the system took place during the reformation in northern europe. This is all based on what is known by history and anthropology during Veblen's time. It is like that much of this would be wrong or considerable rethought today. 


The point is less whether Veblen was right but that he had a very different approach to economics. He is focused on moving away from marginal and rational choice economics and understanding how history and social forces shape the individual in their thinking and actions. At this point, the biggest limitation would appear to be an understanding of how change occurs. Do technological forces create the pressure for change in institutions? If so, where does the impetus for change in technology come from?

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