INDUSTRIALIZATION IN ENGLAND

The Industrial Revolution began in England in the early 18th century for
the following reasons:

1. England had experienced all of the forerunners of industrialization in the previous

century: an agricultural revolution, cottage industry, and an expanded commercial
revolution.  These developments had built surplus capital and an infrastructure
(shipping, banking, insurance, joint stock companies).

2. England already had a handcraft textile industry using wool, but with the availability of
cotton from overseas markets as an alternative raw material.

3. The scientific revolution in England prepared the way for new inventions to be applied
to industry.

4. A spreading shortage of wood (used for energy, for shipbuilding and

construction) stimulated a search for alternatives.

5. England was rich in supplies of coal for energy and iron for construction.

6. England had a long, irregular coastline with many rivers and natural
harbors which provided easy transportation by water to many areas.

7. England's population grew rapidly in the 18th century, providing a labor

force for industry.

NEW TECHNOLOGY IN THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY:

In about 1765, Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny which could spin numerous spools
of cotton simultaneously. It was hand-powered, yet it could multiply several-fold the
amount to be spun.

At about the same time Arkwright invented the water frame which could spin several
hundred spools at a time. But it required water power, and it could only spin coarse thread.

Both inventions were used, the one to spin coarse thread, the other to spin
fine thread.

About 1790, Crompton's Mule, powered by a steam engine, provided an alternative

method.

Cotton yarn could be spun in great quantity, but weaving of cloth was by
hand until the power loom was perfected about 1800.
In the interim, weavers were well paid, until displaced by the power loom.
Thus, the employment market was dramatically changed twice in a short
period of time by the process of industrialization.

THE PROBLEM OF ENERGY:

The shortage of trees for lumber had led to the use of coal for heating, but coal mines
constantly flooded. Newcomen's steam engine, invented in 1705, was an inefficient but
acceptable method of pumping water out of the mines. It could not, however, generate
power.

The new textile machines could be driven by water power, but that would
have set severe limits to the available locations. Furthermore, lack of
lumber threatened to cut short the industrial growth.

The iron industry consumed large quantities of lumber to produce charcoal, needed for
production of pig iron. The iron industry was coming to a halt.

In the early 1760's through the 1780's,  James Watt improved the design of the steam
engine so that it could generate power. This was the most important of all the inventions of
the time because it enabled coal to be burned to drive machinery.

Steam-driven bellows enabled coke (produced from coal) to be burned in a blast furnace
rather than charcoal.  In the 1780's Henry Cort developed the puddling furnace, and
steam-powered rolling mills. These developments revitalized the iron industry.

All of the above developments were to change the source of energy from
wood to coal, and the preferred construction material from wood to iron.
These are hallmarks of industrialization.

THE PROBLEM OF TRANSPORTATION

The process would nevertheless have stagnated if there had not been a
revolution in transportation.

Iron rails were developed for coal carts to be hauled to nearby water transport. The
combination of iron rails and the steam engine to transport people and goods was the
railroad.  This was the greatest achievement in transportation since ancient times.
Once accepted, it brought great numbers of consumers within reach of the growing volume
of goods being produced. It made a market economy possible.

Industrial development on the continent lagged behind England for at least a generation.
The separation of England from the Continent by the Napoleonic Wars delayed the spread
of English technology. Eventually, industrialization spread, first to the lowlands and the
northeastern United States, then eastward and southward across Europe and westward
across North America. For per-capita levels of industrialization during the 19th Century,
When it did come, English skilled technicians were much in demand and paid high wages.
Governments played a more prominent role on the continent, particularly in the financing
of railroads. These were the most visual evidence of industrialization, but required large
amounts of capital.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:-

Industrial Revolution. During the 1700s and early 1800s, great changes took place in the lives
and work of people in several parts of the world. These changes resulted from the development
of industrialization. The term Industrial Revolution refers both to the changes that occurred and
to the period itself. 

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain during the 1700s. It started spreading to other
parts of Europe and to North America in the early 1800s. By the mid-1800s, industrialization had
become widespread in western Europe and the northeastern United States. 

The Industrial Revolution created an enormous increase in the production of many kinds of
goods. Some of this increase in production resulted from the introduction of power-driven
machinery and the development of factory organization. Before the revolution, manufacturing
was done by hand or simple machines. Most people worked at home in rural areas. A few
worked in shops in towns as part of associations called guilds. The Industrial Revolution
eventually took manufacturing out of the home and workshop. Power-driven machines replaced
handwork, and factories developed as the best way of bringing together the machines and the
workers to operate them. 

As the Industrial Revolution grew, private investors and financial institutions were needed to
provide money for the further expansion of industrialization. Financiers and banks thus became
as important as industrialists and factories in the growth of the revolution. For the first time in
European history, wealthy business leaders called capitalists took over the control and
organization of manufacturing. 

Historians have disagreed on the significance of the Industrial Revolution. Some have
emphasized that the importance of the revolution was in the great increase in the production of
goods. They argue that this increase did more during the 1800s to raise peoples standard of living
than all the actions of legislatures and trade unions. Other historians have stressed the negative
parts of the revolution. They point to the overcrowded and unsanitary housing and the terrible
working conditions created by rapid industrialization in the cities. 

Some historians have even denied that the Industrial Revolution was revolutionary--that is, a
period of great and sudden changes. These scholars insist that the basic elements of the Industrial
Revolution can be traced back to developments in Europe hundreds of years before the 1700s. 
Today, most historians agree that the Industrial Revolution was a great turning point in the
history of the world. It changed the Western world from a basically rural and agricultural society
to a basically urban and industrial society. Industrialization brought many material benefits, but
it also created a large number of problems that still remain critical in the modern world. For
example, most industrial countries face problems of air and water pollution. 

Life before the Industrial Revolution 

On the eve of the Industrial Revolution, less than 10 per cent of the people of Europe lived in
cities. The rest lived in small towns and villages scattered across the countryside. These people
spent most of their working day farming. Unless they could sell surplus food in nearby towns,
they grew little more than they needed for themselves. The people in rural areas made most of
their own clothing, furniture, and tools from raw materials produced on the farms or in forests. 

Before the Industrial Revolution, some industry existed throughout western Europe. A little
manufacturing was carried on in guild shops in towns. Craftworkers in the shops worked with
simple tools to make such products as cloth, hardware, jewelry, leather goods, silverware, and
weapons. Some products made in the towns were exchanged for food raised in the countryside.
Town products were also exported to pay for luxuries imported from abroad, or they were sent to
the colonies in payment for raw materials. 

Most manufacturing, however, took place in homes in rural areas. Merchants called
entrepreneurs distributed raw materials to workers in their homes and collected the finished
products. The entrepreneurs owned the raw materials, paid for the work, and took the risk of
finding a market for their products. They often spread their operations to include workers in
nearby villages. In the home, the whole family worked together making clothing, food products,
textiles, and wood products. Workers themselves provided most of the power for manufacturing.
Water wheels furnished some power. 

The way of life differed from place to place, depending on the climate, the soil, and the distance
from towns and trade routes. For most people, life revolved around the agricultural seasons--
planting, cultivating, harvesting, and processing the harvest. The way of life changed little from
one generation to the next, and most sons followed their father's trade. 

Life was hard for most people. They lived under the constant threat that their crops might fail.
Although few people starved, many of them suffered from malnutrition. As a result, they caught
diseases readily, and epidemics were common. Most workers produced little and earned little.
Only a few people enjoyed large incomes, usually because they owned land, held public office,
or had succeeded in business. Little money was saved or invested in business ventures. In fact,
there were few opportunities for investment. 

Before the Industrial Revolution, most European countries were ruled by a monarch who had
much personal power. Great landowners, rich merchants, and some members of the clergy also
had considerable political influence. But the workers and farmers had no voice in the
government. Many countries did not even hold elections. Although Great Britain had a
Parliament, only male members of the Church of England who paid a certain amount of taxes
could vote. A handful of voters often determined who would represent a district in Great Britain.
All these social, economic, and political conditions changed in Great Britain as the Industrial
Revolution developed. 

Growth of the Industrial Revolution 

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain for several reasons. The country had large
deposits of coal and iron, the two natural resources on which early industrialization largely
depended. Other industrial raw materials came from Great Britain's colonies. By the mid-1700's,
the country had become the world's leading colonial power. Great Britain's colonies not only
provided raw materials, but also provided markets for manufactured products. These colonial
markets helped stimulate the textile and iron industries, which were probably the two most
important industries during the Industrial Revolution. 

The demand for British goods grew rapidly during the late 1700's both in Britain and in other
countries. This demand forced businesses to compete with one another for the limited supply of
labor and raw materials, which raised production costs. The rising costs of production began to
cut into profits. Further demand could not be satisfied until Britain enlarged its capacity to
produce goods inexpensively. 

British merchants did not want to raise the prices of their goods and thus discourage demand.
They sought more economical and efficient ways of using capital and labor so the amount each
worker produced would increase faster than the cost of production. The merchants achieved their
goal through the development of factories, machines, and technical skills. 

The textile industry 

One of the most spectacular features of the Industrial Revolution was the introduction of power-
driven machinery in the textile industries of England and Scotland. This took place between
1750 and 1800 and marked the beginning of the age of the modern factory. 

Before the industrialization of the textile industry, merchants purchased raw materials and
distributed them among workers who lived in cottages on farms or in villages. Some of these
workers spun the plant and animal fibers into yarn, and others wove the yarn into cloth. This
system was called domestic or cottage industry. 

Under the domestic system, merchants bought as much material and employed as many workers
as they needed. The merchants financed the entire operation. Some of them owned the spinning
and weaving equipment and the workers' cottages. However, the workers had much
independence and set their own pace of work. Sometimes they hired help and had apprentices.
They often accepted work from several merchants at the same time. 

The domestic system presented many problems for the merchants. They had difficulty regulating
standards of workmanship and maintaining schedules for completing work. Workers sometimes
sold some of the yarn or cloth for their own profit. As the demand for cloth increased, merchants
often had to compete with one another for the limited number of workers available in a
manufacturing district. All these problems increased the merchants' costs. As a result, the
merchants turned increasingly to machinery for greater production and to factories for central
control over their workers. 

Agriculture as well as rural industry began to feel the changes brought about by the
industrialization of textile manufacturing. To meet the increased demand for textiles and other
products, landowners began raising raw materials rather than food on their land. The size of
farms increased. Many farms were organized along industrial lines. There was a large increase in
capital investment in agriculture. Standards of farm management improved. The quality of
livestock and crop seed also improved greatly. 

Spinning machines. For hundreds of years before the Industrial Revolution, spinning had been
done in the home on a simple device called a spinning wheel. One person operated the wheel,
powering it with a foot pedal. The spinning wheel produced only one thread at a time. 

The first spinning machines were crude devices that often broke the fragile threads. In 1738,
Lewis Paul, a Middlesex inventor, and John Wyatt, a Lichfield mechanic, patented an improved
roller-spinning machine. This machine pulled the strands of material through sets of wooden
rollers that moved at different speeds, making some strands tighter than others. When combined,
these strands were stronger than strands of uniform tightness. The combined strands passed onto
the flier, the part of the machine that twisted the strands into yarn. The finished yarn was wound
onto a bobbin that revolved on a spindle. Mechanically, the roller-spinning machine was not
completely successful. However, it was the first step in the industrialization of textile
manufacturing. 

In the 1760's, two new machines revolutionized the textile industry. One was the spinning jenny,
invented by James Hargreaves, a Blackburn weaver and carpenter. The other machine was the
water frame, or throstle, invented by Sir Richard Arkwright, a former Preston barber. Both
machines solved many of the problems of roller spinning, especially in the production of yarn
used to make coarse cloth. 

Between 1774 and 1779, a Lancashire weaver named Samuel Crompton developed the spinning
mule. This machine combined features of the spinning jenny and the water frame and, in time,
replaced both machines. The mule was particularly efficient in spinning fine yarn for high-
quality cloth, which, before the invention of the mule, had been imported from India. During the
1780's and 1790's, larger spinning mules were built. They had metal rollers and several hundred
spindles. These machines ended the home spinning industry. For further information on the
development of spinning machines.

The first textile mills appeared in Great Britain in the 1740's. By the 1780's, England had 120
mills, and several had been built in Scotland. 

Weaving machines. Until the early 1800's, almost all weaving was done on handlooms because
no one could solve the problems of mechanical weaving. In 1733, John Kay, a Lancashire
clockmaker, invented the flying shuttle. This machine made all the movements for weaving, but
it often went out of control. 

In the mid-1780's, an Anglican clergyman named Edmund Cartwright developed a steam-

powered loom. In 1803, John Horrocks, a Lancashire machine manufacturer, built an all-metal
loom. Other British machine makers made further improvements in the steam-powered loom
during the early 1800's. By 1835, Great Britain had more than 120,000 power looms. Most of
them were used to weave cotton. After the mid-1800's, handlooms were used only to make
fancy-patterned cloth, which still could not be made on power looms. 

The steam engine 

Many of the most important inventions of the Industrial Revolution required much more power
than horses or water wheels could provide. Industry needed a new, cheap, and efficient source of
power and found it in the steam engine. 

The first commercial steam engine was produced in 1698. That year, Thomas Savery, a Cornish
army officer, patented a pumping engine that used steam. In 1712, Thomas Newcomen, a
Devonshire blacksmith, improved on Savery's engine. Newcomen's engine came into general use
during the 1720's. 

Newcomen's steam engine had serious faults. It wasted much heat and used a great amount of
fuel. In the 1760's, James Watt of Scotland began working to improve the steam engine. By
1785, he had eliminated many of the problems of earlier engines. Watt's engine used heat much
more efficiently than Newcomen's engine and used less fuel. For more information on the
development of the steam engine.

The enormous potential of the steam engine and power-driven machinery could not have been
achieved without the development of machine tools to shape metal. When Watt began to
experiment with the steam engine, he could not find a tool that drilled a perfectly round hole. As
a result, his engines leaked steam. In 1775, John Wilkinson, a Staffordshire ironmaker, invented
a boring machine that drilled a more precise hole. Between 1800 and 1825, English inventors
developed a planer, which smoothed the surfaces of the steam engine's metal parts. By 1830,
nearly all the basic machine tools necessary for modern industry were in general use. 

Coal and iron 

The Industrial Revolution could not have developed without coal and iron. Coal provided the
power to drive the steam engines and was needed to make iron. Iron was used to improve
machines and tools and to build bridges and ships. Great Britain's large deposits of coal and iron
ore helped make it the world's first industrial nation. 

Early ironmaking. To make iron, the metal must be separated from the nonmetallic elements in
the ore. This separation process is called smelting. For thousands of years before the Industrial
Revolution, smelting had been done by placing iron ore in a furnace with a burning fuel that
lacked enough oxygen to burn completely. Oxygen in the ore combined with the fuel, and the
pure, melted metal flowed into small molds called pigs. The pigs were then hammered by hand
into sheets. Beginning in the early 1600's, the pigs were shipped to rolling mills. At a rolling
mill, the pig iron was softened by reheating and rolled into sheets by heavy iron cylinders. 

The most practical fuel for smelting was charcoal, made by burning hardwoods. Most of Great
Britain's iron ore deposits and hardwood forests were in rural areas. Smelting and rolling thus
became rural activities done by local workers. Since the 1600's, charcoal had been used in many
other manufacturing processes besides smelting and rolling. Wood was also in demand for other
purposes. As a result, Great Britain had almost used up its hardwood forests by the early 1700's.
Charcoal became so expensive that many ironmakers in Britain quit the industry because of the
high costs of production. 

The revolution in ironmaking. Between 1709 and 1713, Abraham Darby, a Shropshire
ironmaker, succeeded in using coke to smelt iron. Coke is made by heating coal in an airtight
oven. Smelting with coke was much more economical and efficient than smelting with charcoal.
But most ironmakers continued to use charcoal. Manufacturers complained that coke-smelted
iron was brittle and could not be worked easily. They still preferred the more workable iron
smelted with charcoal. About 1750, Darby's son Abraham Darby II developed a process that
made coke iron as easy to work as charcoal iron. After 1760, coke smelting spread throughout
Britain. 

In the 1720's, an important breakthrough occurred in rolling the iron. Grooves were added to the
rolling cylinders, allowing manufacturers to roll iron into different shapes, instead of simply into
thin sheets. 

A Fareham ironmaker named Henry Cort took out a patent for improved grooved rollers in 1783.
The next year, he patented a puddling furnace. Cort did not invent the puddling furnace, but he
made great improvements in it. The puddling process produced high-quality iron. Pig iron was
reheated in Cort's puddling furnace until it became a paste. A person called a puddler stirred the
paste with iron rods until the impurities were burned away. The purified iron was then passed
through Cort's grooved rollers and formed into the desired shape. 

Before Cort developed his puddling furnace, ironmakers had to use charcoal to reheat the pig
iron for rolling. But Cort's furnace--with its combined rolling mill--used coke. The use of coke
for smelting and puddling finally freed the British iron industry of any dependence on charcoal.
In addition, the smelting, puddling, and rolling steps could be combined into a continuous
operation near the coal fields. As a result, the British iron industry became concentrated in four
coal-mining regions--Staffordshire, Yorkshire, southern Wales, and along the River Clyde in
Scotland. 

Ironmaking techniques continued to improve, and iron production expanded enormously. In

1788, for example, British ironmakers produced about 76,000 short tons (68,900 metric tons) of
iron. In 1806, they produced over three times that amount. During the mid-1700's, probably only
about 5 per cent of all British iron was made into machine parts. Most machines were made of
wood. But by the early 1800's, manufacturers used iron to make a wide variety of products,
including machine frames, rails, steam engine parts, and water pipes. 
Transportation 

The growth of the Industrial Revolution depended on industry's ability to transport raw materials
and finished goods over long distances. Thus, the story of the Industrial Revolution is also the
story of a revolution in transportation. 

Waterways. Great Britain had many rivers and harbors that could be adapted to carrying freight.
Until the early 1800's, waterways provided the only cheap and effective means of hauling coal,
iron, and other heavy freight. 

British engineers widened and deepened many streams to make them navigable. They also built
canals to link cities and to connect coal fields with rivers. In 1777, the Grand Trunk Canal
connected the River Mersey with the Trent and Severn rivers and thus linked the English ports of
Bristol, Hull, and Liverpool. British engineers also built many bridges and lighthouses and
deepened harbors. 

In 1807, the American inventor Robert Fulton built the first commercially successful steamboat.
Within a few years, steamboats became common on British rivers. By the mid-1800's, steam-
powered ships were beginning to carry raw materials and finished products across the Atlantic
Ocean. 

Roads. Until the early 1800's, Britain had poor roads. Most usable roads extended only a short
distance beyond a town. Horse-drawn wagons traveled with difficulty, and pack animals carried
goods over long distances. People rarely traveled by stagecoach. They rode horseback or
walked. 

A series of turnpikes was built between 1751 and 1771, which made travel by horse-drawn
wagons and stagecoaches easier. But by the late 1700's, the turnpikes needed repairs badly. 

Two Scottish engineers, John Loudon McAdam and Thomas Telford, made important advances
in road construction during the early 1800's. McAdam originated the macadam type of road
surface, which consists of crushed rock packed into thin layers. Telford developed a technique of
using large flat stones for road foundations. These new methods of roadbuilding made travel by
land faster and smoother. As a result, manufactured goods could be delivered more efficiently.
The orders and money involved in business and industry also moved faster and more simply. 

Railroads. The first rail systems in Great Britain carried coal. Horses pulled the freight cars,
which moved on iron rails. In 1804, a Cornish engineer, Richard Trevithick, built the first steam
locomotive. Several other locomotives were built during the next 20 years, and they were used to
haul freight at coal mines and at ironworks. However, industry generally preferred to use
stationary engines that pulled the freight cars by means of cables. Steam locomotives did not
begin to come into general use for passenger and freight transportation until the late 1830's. See
Railroad (History); Locomotive (History). 
The role of capital 

Individual investors played a vital part in the growth of the Industrial Revolution from the
beginning. Many English merchants made fortunes during the 1700's from European wars, from
the slave trade with North America, or from commerce with Britain's colonies. These merchants
and other English people began seeking investment opportunities after seeing industries make
large profits. 

Gradually, banks were founded to handle the increased flow of money. In 1750, London had 20
banks. By 1800, the city had 70. 

Most banks did not directly invest in factories or make loans to factory owners for the purchase
of machinery. Some banks, however, made short-term loans to industrialists to cover their
operating expenses. Such loans allowed industrialists to use their own money to buy equipment
and improve and expand their factories. Banks mainly provided credit to farmers, wholesalers,
and retail merchants, who then placed orders with manufacturers. 

As machinery and factories became more expensive, the individuals who provided capital grew
increasingly important. These industrial capitalists soon became one of the most powerful forces
in British commercial and political life.