1. The Industrial Revolution
Origins, Causes & “Why Great Britain?” – 1750s to the 1850s

2. The INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
“…took place during the 18th & 19th centuries, was a period during which mostly agricultural & rural societies in Europe & America became industrial & urban.”
BIG PICTURE
“Before the Indus. Rev., which began in GB (late 1700s), manufacturing was often done in people’s homes (Cottage Industry), using hand tools & basic machines. Industrialization marked a shift to powered, special-purpose machinery, factories & mass production!
…the iron & textile industries, along with the development of the steam engine, played central roles in the Indus. Rev., which also saw improved systems of transportation, communication & banking.
…while industrialization brought about an increased volume & variety of manufactured goods & an improved standard of living for some, it also resulted in often grim employment & living conditions for the poor & working classes.”

3. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
1750s until the late 1800s
BEFORE the ‘IR’
AFTER the ‘IR’
Hand-made products
Products made by MACHINES
COTTAGE INDUSTRY
Factory System
Rural society
URBAN SOCIETY
Agricultural society
INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
Wood structures
IRON & STEEL structures
Transport… wagon-ways, rivers
“The Industrial Revolution, which took place from the 18th to 19th centuries, was a period during which predominantly agrarian, rural societies in Europe and America became industrial and urban. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the late 1700s, manufacturing was often done in people’s homes, using hand tools or basic machines. Industrialization marked a shift to powered, special-purpose machinery, factories and mass production. The iron and textile industries, along with the development of the steam engine, played central roles in the Industrial Revolution, which also saw improved systems of transportation, communication and banking. While industrialization brought about an increased volume and variety of manufactured goods and an improved standard of living for some, it also resulted in often grim employment and living conditions for the poor and working classes.”
Transport… canals, RAILROAD
Water & wind power
STEAM POWER

4. “What are the ORIGINS & CAUSES of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain?”
* * An AGRICULTURAL Revolution that changed farming in Europe!
1.) Population Growth in Great Britain during the 18th century!
2.) The British Empire had a wide Supply of Markets…
3.) Wealthy British had the ability to make Capital Investments!
4.) Geography, Natural Resources & a Strong Navy…
5.) A strong, supportive & stable Government allowed for growth!
* * * The causes of the Industrial Revolution were complicated and remain a topic for debate, with some historians believing the Revolution was an outgrowth of social and institutional changes brought by the end of feudalism in Britain after the English Civil War in the 17th century. As national border controls became more effective, the spread of disease was lessened, thereby preventing the epidemics common in previous times.
The percentage of children who lived past infancy rose significantly, leading to a larger workforce. The Enclosure movement and the British Agricultural Revolution made food production more efficient and less labour-intensive, forcing the surplus population who could no longer find employment in agriculture into cottage industry, for example weaving, and in the longer term into the cities and the newly developed factories.
The colonial expansion of the 17th century with the accompanying development of international trade, creation of financial markets and accumulation of capital are also cited as factors, as is the scientific revolution of the 17th century.
The presence of a large domestic market should also be considered an important driver of the Industrial Revolution, particularly explaining why it occurred in Britain. In other nations, such as France, markets were split up by local regions, which often imposed tolls and tariffs on goods traded among them. Internal tariffs were abolished by Henry VIII of England, they survived in Russia till 1753, 1789 in France and 1839 in Spain.
Governments' grant of limited monopolies to inventors under a developing patent system (the Statute of Monopolies in 1623) is considered an influential factor. The effects of patents, both good and ill, on the development of industrialisation are clearly illustrated in the history of the steam engine, the key enabling technology.
In return for publicly revealing the workings of an invention the patent system rewarded inventors such as James Watt by allowing them to monopolise the production of the first steam engines, thereby rewarding inventors and increasing the pace of technological development.
However, monopolies bring with them their own inefficiencies which may counterbalance, or even overbalance, the beneficial effects of publicising ingenuity and rewarding inventors. Watt's monopoly may have prevented other inventors, such as Richard Trevithick, William Murdoch or Jonathan Hornblower, from introducing improved steam engines, thereby retarding the industrial revolution by about 16 years…
* * * Great Britain provided the legal and cultural foundations that enabled entrepreneurs to pioneer the industrial revolution… Key factors fostering this environment were: (1) The period of peace and stability which followed the unification of England and Scotland; (2) no trade barriers between England and Scotland; (3) the rule of law (respecting the sanctity of contracts); (4) a straightforward legal system which allowed the formation of joint-stock companies (corporations); and (5) a free market (capitalism).
Geographical and natural resource advantages of Great Britain were the fact that it had extensive coast lines and many navigable rivers in an age where water was the easiest means of transportation and having the highest quality coal in Europe. *
There were two main values that really drove the Industrial Revolution in Britain. These values were self-interest and an entrepreneurial spirit. Because of these interests, many industrial advances were made that resulted in a huge increase in personal wealth. These advancements also greatly benefitted the British society as a whole. Countries around the world started to recognise the changes and advancements in Britain and use them as an example to begin their own Industrial Revolutions.
The debate about the start of the Industrial Revolution also concerns the massive lead that Great Britain had over other countries. Some have stressed the importance of natural or financial resources that Britain received from its many overseas colonies or that profits from the British slave trade between Africa and the Caribbean helped fuel industrial investment. However, it has been pointed out that slave trade and West Indian plantations provided only 5% of the British national income during the years of the Industrial Revolution. Even though slavery accounted for so little, Caribbean-based demand accounted for 12% of Britain's industrial output.
Instead, the greater liberalisation of trade from a large merchant base may have allowed Britain to produce and use emerging scientific and technological developments more effectively than countries with stronger monarchies, particularly China and Russia.
* Britain emerged from the Napoleonic Wars as the only European nation not ravaged by financial plunder and economic collapse, and having the only merchant fleet of any useful size (European merchant fleets were destroyed during the war by the Royal Navy.
Britain's extensive exporting cottage industries also ensured markets were already available for many early forms of manufactured goods. The conflict resulted in most British warfare being conducted overseas, reducing the devastating effects of territorial conquest that affected much of Europe. This was further aided by Britain's geographical position—an island separated from the rest of mainland Europe.
Another theory is that Britain was able to succeed in the Industrial Revolution due to the availability of key resources it possessed. It had a dense population for its small geographical size. Enclosure of common land and the related agricultural revolution made a supply of this labour readily available.
There was also a local coincidence of natural resources in the North of England, the English Midlands, South Wales and the Scottish Lowlands. Local supplies of coal, iron, lead, copper, tin, limestone and water power, resulted in excellent conditions for the development and expansion of industry. Also, the damp, mild weather conditions of the North West of England provided ideal conditions for the spinning of cotton, providing a natural starting point for the birth of the textiles industry.
The stable political situation in Britain from around 1688, and British society's greater receptiveness to change (compared with other European countries) can also be said to be factors favouring the Industrial Revolution. Peasant resistance to industrialisation was largely eliminated by the Enclosure movement, and the landed upper classes developed commercial interests that made them pioneers in removing obstacles to the growth of capitalism.
Britain's population grew 280% 1550–1820, while the rest of Western Europe grew 50–80%. Seventy percent of European urbanisation happened in Britain 1750–1800. By 1800, only the Netherlands was more urbanised than Britain. This was only possible because coal, coke, imported cotton, brick and slate had replaced wood, charcoal, flax, peat and thatch. The latter compete with land grown to feed people while mined materials do not. Yet more land would be freed when chemical fertilisers replaced manure and horse's work was mechanised. A workhorse needs 3 to 5 acres for fodder while even early steam engines produced four times more mechanical energy.
In 1700, 5/6 of coal mined worldwide was in Britain, while the Netherlands had none; so despite having Europe's best transport, most urbanised, well paid, literate people and lowest taxes, it failed to industrialise. In the 18th century, it was the only European country whose cities and population shrank. Without coal, Britain would have run out of suitable river sites for mills by the 1830s…

5. “wealthy farmers bought land from small farmers!”
AGRICULTURAL Revolution
“Europe underwent an AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION (1690s)… which would help lead to the industrial revolution!”
1.) The Enclosure Movement spread to England in the 17th century (process of privatizing ‘common land’)
“wealthy farmers bought land from small farmers!”
THINK – “WHAT EFFECTS did the ENCLOSURE MOVEMENT have?”
* * * In Europe, agriculture was feudal since the Middle Ages. In the traditional open field system, many subsistence farmers cropped strips of land in large fields held in common, and divided the produce. They typically worked under the auspices of the aristocracy or the Catholic Church, which owned much of the land.
* * * As early as the 12th century, some fields in England tilled under the open field system were enclosed into individually owned fields. The Black Death from 1348 onward accelerated the break-up of the feudal system in England.
Many farms were bought by yeomen who enclosed their property and improved the use of their land. More secure control of the land allowed the owner to make innovations that improved yields. Other husbandmen rented property they "share cropped" with the land owners. Many of these enclosures were accomplished by acts of Parliament in the 16th and 17th centuries.
* * * The process of enclosing property accelerated in the 15th and 16th centuries. The more productive enclosed farms meant that fewer farmers were needed to work the same land, leaving many villagers without land and grazing rights. Many of them moved to the cities in search of work in the emerging factories of the Industrial Revolution. Others settled in the English colonies. English Poor Laws were enacted to help these newly poor.
Some practices of enclosure were denounced by the Church, and legislation was drawn up against it; but the large, enclosed fields was needed for the gains in agricultural productivity from the 16th to 18th centuries. This controversy led to a series of government acts, culminating in the General Enclosure Act of 1801 which sanctioned large-scale land reform.
The process of enclosure was largely complete by the end of the 18th century.
* * * Although serfdom in England had disappeared by the end of the seventeenth century, most farms were established on "common land" which local farmers typically leased from a wealthy proprietor who owned large areas of land in a district. There were, however, rules which prevented a landlord from expelling a tenant without a reasonable cause, and so farms could be passed down through a peasant family for generations.
* * Traditionally, the land was divided into long narrow strips which grew smaller as the land was split into more parts for each succeeding generation. When new methods of agriculture began to be developed, it became clear that they would be more efficient with larger plots of land. Enclosure is defined as "the process of inclosing (with fences, ditches, hedges, or other barriers) land formerly subject to common rights" (Inclosure).
* * This meant that the land that peasants had been cultivating on their own was returned to the control of the landowners and redistributed. Scavenging on someone else's land became illegal, and small farmers (who had no political influence and were generally given the poorer plots) often lost access to wood and water (Enclosure Acts).
Although the process was not standardized until the General Enclosure Act of 1801 (Inclosure), many private acts had been passed since the 1750's and enclosure had been common for well over a century before. The urbanization of the English population was largely fueled by dispossessed peasants who moved to the city in the hopes of finding new work.
Movement led to:
1.) Larger/more efficient farms
2.) Urbanization

6. AGRICULTURAL Revolution
2.) Charles ‘Turnip’ Townsend (early 1700s), wealthy landlord from Norfolk – encouraged crop rotation
* * grow more crops & get a better yield from the land (if a crop was not rotated, the nutrient level in the field would go down – yield of the crop from the field decreased)
“What did this new technique lead to?”
1.) Increased food for animals & people
2.) …more manure = better crops
Although serfdom in England had disappeared by the end of the seventeenth century, most farms were established on "common land" which local farmers typically leased from a wealthy proprietor who owned large areas of land in a district. There were, however, rules which prevented a landlord from expelling a tenant without a reasonable cause, and so farms could be passed down through a peasant family for generations.
Traditionally, the land was divided into long narrow strips which grew smaller as the land was split into more parts for each succeeding generation. When new methods of agriculture began to be developed, it became clear that they would be more efficient with larger plots of land. Enclosure is defined as "the process of inclosing (with fences, ditches, hedges, or other barriers) land formerly subject to common rights" (Inclosure).
This meant that the land that peasants had been cultivating on their own was returned to the control of the landowners and redistributed. Scavenging on someone else's land became illegal, and small farmers (who had no political influence and were generally given the poorer plots) often lost access to wood and water (Enclosure Acts).
Although the process was not standardized until the General Enclosure Act of 1801 (Inclosure), many private acts had been passed since the 1750's and enclosure had been common for well over a century before. The urbanization of the English population was largely fueled by dispossessed peasants who moved to the city in the hopes of finding new work (Kreis).
* * * The British Agricultural Revolution was the result of the complex interaction of social, economic and farming technology changes. Major developments and innovations include:
Norfolk four-course crop rotation: Fodder crops, particularly turnips and clover, replaced leaving the land fallow.
The Dutch improved the Chinese plough so that it could be pulled with fewer oxen or horses.
Enclosure: the removal of common rights to establish exclusive ownership of land
Development of a national market free of tariffs, tolls and customs barriers
Transportation infrastructures, such as improved roads, canals, and later, railways
Land conversion, land drains and reclamation
Increase in farm size
Selective breeding
gmn
* Beneficial agricultural cycle

7. AGRICULTURAL Revolution
3.) Jethro Tull perfected the seed drill (1701) that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows… (more seed taking root = more crops…)
* Before the seed drill, common practice was to plant seeds by hand… besides being wasteful, planting was imprecise & led to a poor distribution of seeds, leading to low productivity!
4.) Robert Bakewell, 18th century English Agriculturalist, well known for selective breeding of sheep & cattle (larger cattle, better cattle = more food!)
Although serfdom in England had disappeared by the end of the seventeenth century, most farms were established on "common land" which local farmers typically leased from a wealthy proprietor who owned large areas of land in a district. There were, however, rules which prevented a landlord from expelling a tenant without a reasonable cause, and so farms could be passed down through a peasant family for generations.
Traditionally, the land was divided into long narrow strips which grew smaller as the land was split into more parts for each succeeding generation. When new methods of agriculture began to be developed, it became clear that they would be more efficient with larger plots of land. Enclosure is defined as "the process of inclosing (with fences, ditches, hedges, or other barriers) land formerly subject to common rights" (Inclosure).
This meant that the land that peasants had been cultivating on their own was returned to the control of the landowners and redistributed. Scavenging on someone else's land became illegal, and small farmers (who had no political influence and were generally given the poorer plots) often lost access to wood and water (Enclosure Acts).
Although the process was not standardized until the General Enclosure Act of 1801 (Inclosure), many private acts had been passed since the 1750's and enclosure had been common for well over a century before. The urbanization of the English population was largely fueled by dispossessed peasants who moved to the city in the hopes of finding new work (Kreis).
* * * The British Agricultural Revolution was the result of the complex interaction of social, economic and farming technology changes. Major developments and innovations include:
Norfolk four-course crop rotation: Fodder crops, particularly turnips and clover, replaced leaving the land fallow.
The Dutch improved the Chinese plough so that it could be pulled with fewer oxen or horses.
Enclosure: the removal of common rights to establish exclusive ownership of land
Development of a national market free of tariffs, tolls and customs barriers
Transportation infrastructures, such as improved roads, canals, and later, railways
Land conversion, land drains and reclamation
Increase in farm size
Selective breeding
* * * In England, Robert Bakewell and Thomas Coke introduced selective breeding as a scientific practice, mating together two animals with particularly desirable characteristics, and also using inbreeding or the mating of close relatives, such as father and daughter, or brother and sister, to stabilise certain qualities in order to reduce genetic diversity in desirable animals programmes from the mid-18th century. Arguably, Bakewell's most important breeding programme was with sheep.
Using native stock, he was able to quickly select for large, yet fine-boned sheep, with long, lustrous wool. The Lincoln Longwool was improved by Bakewell, and in turn the Lincoln was used to develop the subsequent breed, named the New (or Dishley) Leicester. It was hornless and had a square, meaty body with straight top lines.
Bakewell was also the first to breed cattle to be used primarily for beef. Previously, cattle were first and foremost kept for pulling ploughs as oxen or for dairy uses, with beef from surplus males as an additional bonus, but he crossed long-horned heifers and a Westmoreland bull to eventually create the Dishley Longhorn. As more and more farmers followed his lead, farm animals increased dramatically in size and quality.
The average weight of a bull sold for slaughter at Smithfield was reported around 1700 as 370 pounds (170 kg), though this is considered a low estimate: by 1786, weights of 840 pounds (380 kg) were reported, though other contemporary indicators suggest an increase of around a quarter over the intervening century…

8. more efficient production was necessary!
Population Growth
The AGRICULTURAL Revolution:
…MORE FOOD!
1.) = MORE people being fed!
2.) = MORE people surviving!
3.) = MORE stability throughout society!
4.) uRBANIZATION!
More food =
more people =
more demand =
more efficient production was necessary!
* * * In the Middle Ages most people lived in the countryside and made a living from farming… However at the time of the Domesday Book (1086) about 10% of the population of England lived in towns. Moreover trade boomed in the following two centuries and many new towns were founded.
The first thing that would surprise us about those towns would be their small size. At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 LONDON had a population of about 18,000. By the 14th century it rose to about 45,000. Other towns were much smaller. York may have had a population of about 13,000 by 1400 but it then fell to about 10,000 by Most towns had between 2,000 and 5,000 inhabitants.
* * * However disaster struck in when the Black Death reached England. It killed about 1/3 of the population. The plague returned again and again and the population of England was severely reduced. In 1400 the population of England was probably about 2 1/2 million.
The Population of England
…by 1530 the population of England and Wales had risen to around 3 million and by 1600 it was about 4 million.
In Tudor times towns remained small (although they were a vital part of the economy). The only exception was London. From a population of only about 60,000 or 70,000 at the end of the 15th century it grew to about 250,000 people by Other towns in Britain were much smaller. The next largest town was probably Bristol, with a population of only around 20,000 in 1600.
* * * Nevertheless in the 16th century towns grew larger as trade and commerce grew. The rise in town's populations was despite outbreaks of plague. It struck all the towns at intervals in the 16th and 17th century but seems to have died out after Each time it struck a significant part of the town's population died but they were soon replaced by people from the countryside.
At the end of the 17th century it was estimated the population of England and Wales was about 5 1/2 million. The population of Scotland was about 1 million. The population of London was about 600,000.
In the mid 18th century the population of Britain was about 6 1/2 million. In the late 18th century it grew rapidly and by 1801 it was over 9 million. The population of London was almost 1 million.
During the 18th century towns in Britain grew larger. Nevertheless most towns still had populations of less than 10,000. However in the late 18th century new industrial towns in the Midland and the North of England mushroomed. Meanwhile the population of London grew to nearly 1 million by the end of the century. Other towns were much smaller. The population of Liverpool was about 77,000 in Birmingham had about 73,000 people and Manchester had about 70,000. Bristol had a population of about 68,000. Sheffield was smaller with 31,000 people and Leeds had about 30,000 people. Leicester had a population of about 17,000 in In the south Portsmouth had a population of about 32,000 in 1800 while Exeter had about 20,000 people.
The Population of Britain After the Industrial Revolution
…in the 19th century Britain became the world's first industrial society. It also became the first urban society. By 1851 more than half the population lived in towns.
The population of Britain boomed during the 19th century. In 1801 it was about 9 million. By 1901 it had risen to about 41 million. This was despite the fact that many people emigrated to North America and Australia to escape poverty. About 15 million people left Britain between 1815 and 1914.
However there were also many immigrants. In the 1840s many people came from Ireland, fleeing a terrible potato famine. In the 1880s the Tsar began persecuting Russian Jews. Some fled to Britain and settled in the East End of London.
During the 20th century the population of Britain grew more slowly. However by the beginning of the 21st century it had reached 60 million. In the 1950s large numbers of West Indians arrived in Britain. Also from the 1950s many Asians came. In the late 20th century Britain became a multi-cultural society. Meanwhile the population of London reached a peak of 8.7 million in It fell to just under 8.2 million in 1951 and it has since fallen to 7.2 million. Today the population of Britain is 64.6 million.
These factors led to a population boom in Great Britain during the 18th century!

9. British Empire & the Supply of ‘Markets’
1.) …world’s leading colonial power; meant that its colonies could serve as:
source for raw materials (exploitation)
marketplace for manufactured goods…
“A market is any place where the sellers of a good or service can meet with the buyers of that good or service where there is potential for a transaction to take place.”

10. material wealth… in the form of money or property.
Capital Investments
1.) British colonial expansion during the 17th century led to:
…the development of international trade
…the creation of new financial markets
= The accumulation of capital…
2.) NEW WEALTH allowed for entrepreneurs to make large investments of capital into the new textile, coal mining & metal industries!
EXAMPLE “The textile industry, for instance, relied on raw material from America; finished goods were sold internally but also abroad, especially in India, where British colonial rule was able virtually to destroy the once flourishing Indian textile industry by forbidding the export of Indian textiles.”
WHAT IS CAPITAL?
material wealth… in the form of money or property.

11. Geography, Natural Resources & a Strong Navy
1.) RIVERS & CANALS for TRANSPORTATION & WATER POWER
2.) Island… Ports enabled TRADE
3.) Coal provided for FUEL
4.) Iron ORE strengthened MANUFACTURING
* * Population provided for WORKERS
* * STRONG NAVY to protect & expand economy
* * GB had HUGE deposits of coal & iron ore, which proved essential for industrialization…
NATURAL RESOURCES: “naturally occurring exploitable material” (coal, wood, water, minerals, etc.)

12. strong, supportive & stable Government
1.) Great Britain had abolished feudalism (1660) – no feudal class to hold back the working class!
2.) Out of ALL the wars that had been fought during the 17th and 18th centuries – how many were fought in ENGLAND?
* * Great Britain used their political stability to their advantage:
stable government at home… STRONG & large EMPIRE abroad…
Gov’t that supported INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & laissez-faire economics