1. The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain c.e. 1780

2. Essential Questions
What conditions exist which promote the industrial revolution in Great Britain?
Why are the causes and consequences of rapid industrialization in Great Britain?
What are the long-term global effects of Britain’s industrial prowess?

3. Why Great Britain?
Colonial market, expanding Atlantic trade, strong tariff-free home market creates new demands for manufactured goods
Cheap food frees up expendable income for industrial goods
Available capital, stable government, economic freedom, and mobile labor provides right mix in England
Industrial Revolution begins in 1780’s in Great Britain, after on the Continent.

4. The First Factories
Growing demand for textiles leads to the creation of the first large factories
Putting out system can’t keep up with demand

5. The First Factories
Hargreaves’s spinning jenny and Arkwright’s water frame speed up spinning
Cotton spinning gradually moved to factories
Cotton goods cheaper and more available
Wages of weavers rise quick, ag workers move to become weavers

6. Working Conditions
Working conditions in factories bad, become poorhouses
Abandoned kids prime labor force
“apprenticed” workers hour days
Exploitation leads to reform and humanitarian attitudes toward kids
1831, cotton industry has grown to 22% of nation’s industrial output

7. The Problem of Energy Energy from land was limited
Solution to energy problem was cause of industrialization
Energy sources have always been plants, animals, and humans.
Energy from land was limited
Britain’s major source of fuel was wood, nearly gone
Wood gave heat and charcoal which was used for iron production
Needed new source of power= coal

8. Steam Engine Breakthrough
Coal used for heat, but not for mechanical energy or to run machinery
1 day of coal production= 27 days worth of energy
Early steam engines (Savery and Newcomen) were inefficient
1760’s James Watt increased the efficiency of steam engines and began to produce them
Steam power was used in many industries and encouraged other breakthroughs
Textile industry expansion
Iron made coke available
Cort’s puddling furnace increased production of pig iron

9. The Coming of Railroads
Stephenson’s “Rocket” first locomotive (Liverpool to Manchester)
Railroad boom means lower transportation costs, larger markets and cheaper goods.
RR workers were taken from the country and brought to the city
RR changed the outlook and values of the society

10. Industry and Population
1851 Great Exposition, held in Crystal Palace, reflected growth of the industry and population. Dubbed “workshop of the world”.

11. Industry and Population
GNP grew 400% and population boomed, but consumption grew only 75%
Malthus argued population would always exceed food supply
Ricardo said wages would always be low
Both proven wrong in the long run
Thomas Malthus
David Ricardo