The late industrialization experienced by nations such as Italy and Spain, starting from the second half of the 19th century, occurred in a context opposite to that which, according to Allen (2001, 2009, 2013), allowed the technological transformation that led to the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain starting from the mid-1700s. Low wages and the availability of unskilled labor, on the one hand, and the high cost of energy with a shortage of coal and human capital, on the other hand, may have influenced the creation of innovation with consequent effects on the process of industrialization and economic growth in southern Europe.