Main content

Josiah Wedgwood is arguably the best-known name in the history of pottery - but it's not just his pots that made their mark on history. Tim Harford explains how a business model Wedgwood devised in the 18th Century still underpins the modern fashion industry.

Available now

10 minutes

Last on

Mon 11 Nov 2019 04:50GMT

Image credit

Cup and saucer decorated with classical motifs, 1790, green and white stoneware, Wedgwood manufacture, Staffordshire. England, 18th century. Florence, Museo Stibbert (Art Museum). (Credit: DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Sources

Josiah Wedgwood: Entrepreneur to the Enlightenment, Brian Dolan, 2004 Harper Perennial, London

Durability and Monopoly, R. H. Coase, Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 15, No 1, April 1973

How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell, Nancy F Koehn, 2001 Harvard Business School Press, Boston

Design Innovation and Fashion Cycles, Wolfgang Pesendorfer, American Economic Review

The Durapolist Puzzle: Monopoly Power in Durable-Goods Markets, Barak Y. Orbach, Yale Journal on Regulation, Vol. 21, 2004

Broadcasts

  • Sat 9 Nov 2019 05:50GMT
  • Sat 9 Nov 2019 14:50GMT
  • Sun 10 Nov 2019 14:50GMT
  • Sun 10 Nov 2019 15:50GMT
  • Sun 10 Nov 2019 22:50GMT
  • Mon 11 Nov 2019 04:50GMT

Podcast