Josiah Wedgwood was a man of many talents. But maybe his greatest achievement was solving a problem it took another 200 years for a Nobel Prize-winning economist even to identify.
Josiah Wedgwood was a man of many talents – potter, chemist, pioneering accountant. But perhaps his most remarkable achievement was solving a problem it took another two centuries for a Nobel Prize-winning economist even to identify. That problem was how to make wealthy clients pay a premium for your goods, then add to your profits by selling them more cheaply to the mass market. Tim Harford explains how Wedgwood’s 18th century pottery was a precursor to the “trickle-down” theory of fashion that still shapes the economy today.
Producer: Ben Crighton
Editor: Richard Vadon
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- Wed 1 Apr 2020 13:4591ȱ Radio 4
- Fri 6 Nov 2020 23:3091ȱ Radio 4
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