This chapter begins with an overview of the structure and stage of development of the main world economies, and then analyses the output movements in industry and agriculture worldwide. The final sections examine the developments in productivity and the underlying sources of technical progress. The robust rate of technical progress of the 1920s supports the proposition that the Great Depression which overwhelmed the world at the end of the decade was the result of the policies which had been adopted during and after the war, not the uncontrollable outcome of a slowdown in technical progress or some other exogenous phenomenon. Different countries and industries, including agriculture, are surveyed, with emphasis on Britain and Germany.
Keywords: innovation, agriculture, industry, Great Depression, Britain, Germany