THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
(2)
The term “Industrial Revolution” was first used in the 1820s by some French writers and became
of common use after 1884 when a book appeared with that title.
English trade had begun to flourish during the reign of Elizabeth I. It was in that period that many
chartered companies had been established; a charter was the grant given by the Queen to a
company to trade in a particular region or product. Obviously, this meant that these chartered
companies were to give part of their profits to the Crown. In 1694, the Bank of England was
founded by some rich men to lend money to the Government; later these rich men were given the
right to lend money to others, and this facilitated trade greatly. In addition to the expansion of
trade with the rest of the world, by 1707, Britain had the largest internal market in Europe.
Furthermore, the colonies supplied raw materials and also provided a market for British
manufactured goods. Finally, trade brought wealth.
Towards the middle of the 18th century there a great increase in population, which meant a
demand for more pots, more beer and, above all, more clothes. The times really required more
efficient and quicker production.
The first changes were introduced thanks to a series of technological inventions, particularly of
machinery for the spinning and weaving of textiles.
1764 James Hargreaves
spinning jenny
a device that enabled one person to attend
to 16 spinning wheels at once
1769 Richard Arkwright
water frame
a machine driven by water which twisted the
yarn (cotton or wool fibres spun for knitting)
as it spun it
1779 Samuel Crompton
mule
it was a combination of the spinning jenny
and the water frame
1783 Eli Whitney
cotton gin
this machine separated the cotton seeds
(American)
from the fibres
At first most of the power used to drive machinery came from water; hence the word “mill” was
used for a building where manufacture was carried on; the first mills were built by the side of
rivers. The need for more energy brought the development of steam-power: in 1775 James Watt
made an engine that was more powerful by transforming the simple up and down motion of the
piston into a rotary motion. These improvements made Watt’s engine useful in many industries.
The first to use it was the iron manufacturer John Wilkinson, who built the first iron bridge in the
world.
As a result of the development of the steam-engine the new factories were built on the coal and
iron fields of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Central Scotland and South Wales. The new factories
transformed what had been a cottage industry, practised in the home, into a factory industry,
where work hours and rules set down by factory owners had to be kept by workers, whose lives
changed greatly; for example, the labour of women and children was brutally exploited in the
mines and factories and their living conditions were appalling. In the Midlands, factories using
locally found clay began to develop very quickly. The most famous factory was started up by Josiah
Wedgwood, whose high quality china became very well-known.
Such goods were made cheaper than ever by improved transport; new waterways were built, and
transport by these canals was cheaper than the land. During the reign of George III the conditions
of roads were bettered and by the turn of the century mail coaches had halved the time required
for journeys. Rapid road travel and cheap transport by canal made the economic success of the
Industrial Revolution possible.
The Agrarian Revolution was connected to the Industrial Revolution because they both used
technological inventions. The Agrarian Revolution took two principle forms: massive enclosure of
“open fields” and common land, and improvements in the breeding of cattle and in farming
techniques.
Much of the country was still cultivated under the medieval system of the “open field”. This
system made the new methods impossible, and the local landowners got Parliament to pass
“Enclosure Acts”, to transform the medieval “open fields” into large unit farms. The small-holder
could not afford the cost of fencing fields, and lost the use of common land for his cattle;
moreover, he had to sell his share of the village lands and work for other farmers or in factories.
Exercise
Answer the following questions:
1. What was the economic situation in Britain at the beginning of the 18 th century?
2. What did the growth of population bring about?
3. What were the most important inventions of the 18th century?
4. How did they revolutionize cloth-making?
5. Where were the factories built?
6. What did the factories in the Midlands produce?
7. How did transport improve at this time?
8. What were the social consequences of the Industrial Revolution?
9. How did the Agrarian Revolution change the countryside?