Biography

J.K.J. Thomson retired in 2010 taking up Emeritus status. He still supervises graduate work and sustains interests in what were his principal teaching areas at Sussex - the Industrial Revolution, European industrialization, the pre-industrial economy, technological transfer, the history of decline, global cities over time and their part in the emergence of the contemporary world and Spanish History (with foci on the Spanish Civil War and the history of Catalonia). 

He has been visiting professor at two Barcelona universities, the "Autonoma" (1991) and Pompeu i Fabra (2000), and at Lyon-Lumière, France (1996/7), since 2004 has been a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Peer Review College and Catalonia's AGAUR (Agencia de Gestio d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Honorary member of the Societat Catalana d'Economia (section of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans), "Investigador Adscrito" at the Centre d'Estudis Històrics Internacionals, Barcelona and member of the International Advisory Board for the journal Revista Recerques. Historia,Economia,Cultura. 

His first research was on the French Old Regime, his doctorate (Reading 1976) being a study on the Languedocian cloth industry, published in 1982 as Clermont-de-Lodeve, 1633-1789, Fluctuations in the Prosperity of a Languedocian Cloth-Making Town (Cambridge). In the 1980s he shifted to working on early Catalan industrialization, publishing L'industria d'indianes a Barcelona del segle XVIII (L'Avenc) in 1990 and a A Distinctive Industrialization. Cotton in Barcelona, 1728-1832 (Cambridge) in 1992 which was awarded the Catalan Economics prize and published in Catalan in 1994 as Els origens de la industrialitzacio a Catalunya. El coto a Barcelona, 1728-1832 (Edicions 62). Following this he worked on the history of decline, publishing Decline in History. The European Experience (Polity, 1998). In 2000 and 2005 he gained research awards from the Economic and Social Research Council and Arts and Humanities Research Council for projects entitled "Techniques and Social Relationships in Industrializing Catalonia" and "Hispanic Enterprise in the Age of Enlightenment: rhe Trade in American Cotton". Results have been published in journals (see below).  At present he is working on aspects of the Catalan silk industry in the 18th century and a History of Catalonia for the Cambridge Concise Histories series.

I do not have regular office hours. If anyone would like to see me would they please e-mail at j.k.j.thomson@sussex.ac.uk to arrange a time.

James Thomson

Thomson, James K J (2012) Consideracions sobre la industria cotonera i la seva evolucio a Barcelona, 1730-1840. In: La industria de les indianes a Barcelona, 1730-1850. Seminari d'Historia de Barcelona, Barcelona Quaderns de Historia (17). Ajuntament de Barcelona, Barcelona, pp. 317-330. ISBN 1135-3058

Thomson, James (2011) Invention in the industrial revolution: the case of cotton. In: Exceptionalism and industrialisation: Britain and its European rivals, 1688-1815. Cambridge University Press, pp. 127-144. ISBN 9780521189699

Thomson, James (2009) 'L'estat de la recerca sobre els inicis de la industrialització a Catalunya'. In: Aportacions a la recerca i al debat en economia a Catalunya. Jornada Acadèmica i Commemorativa de la Societat Catalana d¿Economia. Anglofort SA. ISBN 9788492583423

Thomson, James (2008) The Spanish trade in American cotton: Atlantic synergies in the age of enlightenment. Revista de Historia Económica, 26 (2). pp. 277-313. ISSN 0212-6109

Thomson, James K J (2008) La política del algodón en la España del siglo XVIII [The politics of cotton in 18th century Spain]. Revista de Historia Industrial, 36. pp. 15-44. ISSN 1132-7200

Thomson, James K J (2005) Explaining the 'take-off' of the Catalan cotton industry. Economic History Review, 58 (4). pp. 701-735. ISSN 0013-0177

Thomson, James (2004) Technological transfer to the Catalan cotton industry: From calico printing to the self-acting mule. In: The fiber that changed the world. The cotton industry in international perspective, 1600-1990s. Oxford University Press/Pasold Research Fund. ISBN 9780199255665

Thomson, James K J (2003) Olot, Barcelona and Ávila and the introduction of the Arkwright technology to Catalonia. Revista de Historia Económica, 21 (2). pp. 297-334. ISSN 0212-6109

Thomson, James (2003) Transferencia tecnológica en la industria algodonera catalana: de las indianas a la selfactina. Revista de Historia Industrial, 24. pp. 13-50. ISSN 1132-7200

Thomson, James (2003) Transferring the spinning Jenny to Barcelona: an apprenticeship in the technology of the industrial revolution. Textile History, 34 (1). pp. 21-46. ISSN 0040-4969

Thomson, James (2001) La introducciò de les máquines jenny a Barcelona (1784-1789): les primeres etapes en la creació d'una tradició de construcció de maquinària. Recerques: Història, Economia, Cultura, 42. pp. 125-46. ISSN 0210-380X

Thomson, James (1998) Decline in history: the European experience. Polity Press, 225pp. ISBN 9780745614250

Thomson, James (1996) Marketing channels and structures in Spain in the first half of the eighteenth century: two contrasting cases. In: Echanges et cultures textiles dand l'Europe pre-industrielle. Revue du Nord, pp. 335-357.

Thomson, James (1994) Els origens de la industrializacio en Catalunya: el coto en Barcelona 1728 - 1832. Edicions 62 Barcelona, 412pp. ISBN 84-297-3803-7