Blackwood 1

Bianca Blackwood

20183946

T.F. Kerim Kartal

HIST 122: Making of the Modern World

02 April 2020

England’s Industrial Trailblaze

In this essay, I will be exploring a number of economic explanations for England’s head

start in the Industrial Revolution. Firstly, I will analyze the British Enclosure Movement, an oft-

forgot property crisis that indicates how England was able to support the feat of industrialization

in the first place. Next I will look at how England’s manufacturing industry was able to boom as

a result of its mechanization of textile spinning machines. Finally, I will examine the importance

of the steam engine, and more specifically the subsequent steam locomotive, and how it ushered

in an economy more industry-focused than other country. Overall, I hope to make it evident

through my essay that it was English economic innovation that lead to England’s industrial

trailblaze.

The British Enclosure Movement was a necessary step towards industrialization. For

centuries prior to industrialization, English villages followed an open-field agricultural system.

Under this system, lords and landowners leased scattered strips of land to cultivators who shared

common pasturage and waste and were free to graze stock and gather timber, stone and coal

where available.1 After the harvest and in fallow seasons, land was open for common pasturing

by the stock of all commoners.2 Around the 15th century, however, fields became over-farmed

1
J. Z. Titow, "Medieval England and the Open-Field System." Past & Present, no. 32 (1965): 86-102.
Accessed March 10, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/649957.
2
Ibid.
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and less and less suitable for growing crops.3 Furthermore, as the demand for food and wool

increased across the country, landowners sought a method of production more efficient than the

communally-operated open-field system.

By consolidating the scattered strips of land into ‘enclosed’, privately-operated farm

plots, landowners could reduce waste (as boundaries between strips could now be cultivated),

utilize large scale equipment such as the seed drill, and cut down on paid labourers.4 The practice

of enclosure began taking off in the 16th century and by the 18th century, Parliament (influenced

by wealthy landowners) was encouraging it through laws like the General Enclosure Act, which

enabled any village, where three-quarters of the landowners agreed, to enclose its land.5

Enclosure was not appreciated by all, though: farmers whose families had worked the same

fields for generations were evicted for failing to prove sufficient legal entitlement, poor farmers,

allocated small plots of land, were unable to compete with large landowners, and many casual

labourers were dismissed because they were no longer useful.6 Dispossessed; masses of poor,

evicted peasants migrated to cities to find work in the 18th and 19th centuries. Fortunately, new

industries had emerged in these urban areas, and job opportunities were steadily arising. The

British Enclosure Movement had created a working-class ready to take on the demands of an

industrialization.

England was a pioneer of the manufacturing industry. The launch of the modern textile

industry, for example, can be attributed to the invention of the Spinning Jenny by Lancashire-

3
“The Commodification of a Blade of Grass: Enclosure in England.” University of Georgia, (2016). Accessed
March 11, 2020. https://ctlsites.uga.edu/whatthehistory/the-commodification-of-a-blade-of-grass-enclosure-in-
england/.
4
"Enclosure Acts—Great Britain 1700–1801". University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, N.d. Accessed March
11, 2020. https://www4.uwsp.edu/english/rsirabia/notes/212/enclosureacts.pdf.
5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
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born James Hargreaves in 1764.7 Before the Spinning Jenny, textile weaving was done in

cottages where weavers worked one spool of yarn at a time on one single-spindled loom.

Hargreaves’s design increased the number of spindles on a weaver’s loom from one to eight,

thereby, increasing the productivity of a single worker eightfold.8 Soon after, looms were

engineered to weave fabric between twenty spindles, and then thirty spindles. By the early 19th

century, Samuel Crompton, of the Greater Manchester area, had developed the Spinning Jenny

into the Spinning Mule, a loom capable of holding hundreds of spindles at once.9

English spinning machines were producing vast quantities of fabric more efficiently than

ever before seen. In order to accommodate this growth, business owners began moving textile

production out from the confines of cottages and into large ‘manufactories’ where production

could be centralized, standardized, and divided between unskilled labourers.10 Textile

manufactories provided thousands of jobs to the people of England, including those who had

been recently ejected from the agricultural system. Accordingly, England’s transition from

domestic spinning to mechanized spinning mills birthed a marvel of the Industrial Revolution:

the factory system.11

What really pushed England’s textile factories as well as other industries to flourish, was

the invention of the Watt steam engine. Although the steam engine had been around since 1711,

its design had hardly been updated. In 1769, Scottish mechanical engineer, James Watt,

7
"Improved Spinning Jenny". Bbc.Co.Uk, 2014. Accessed March 15, 2020.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/ZA1pL6NcT4ynMeLChiyaLg.
8
Marcia Wendorf. "James Hargreaves: The Inventor of the Spinning Jenny". Interestingengineering.Com,
2019. Accessed March 16, 2020. https://interestingengineering.com/james-hargreaves-the-inventor-of-the-
spinning-jenny.
9
"The Spinning Jenny". Bl.Uk. N.d. Accessed March 22, 2020.
https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item107855.html.
10
Ibid.
11
Matthew White. "The Industrial Revolution". The British Library. 2009. Accessed March 22, 2020.
https://www.bl.uk/georgian-britain/articles/the-industrial-revolution#.
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drastically improved the steam engine by adding a separate condensing chamber in order to

reduce the loss of latent heat.12 Because it preserved so much more heat, Watt’s engine produced

greater quantities of steam; making it four times more efficient than the earlier steam engine.13

As Professor Emeritus of mechanical engineering and history at the University of Houston, Dr.

John Lienhard remarks, “Steam power picked up those specialized tasks that were absolutely

essential for the industrial revolution.”

For instance, it was the steam engine that powered the world’s first steam locomotive in

1804.14 Although railway tracks had already existed for minecarts and hand cars, these did not

accommodate long-distance freight transport, alas, it took a long time for goods to reach their

destinations. 15 The initial steam locomotive, constructed by Cornwall-native, Richard Trevithick,

could pull ten tons of ore and seventy people at five miles per hour.16 While, today, these figures

may not strike us as much, they were awe-inspiring for the time as this kind of technology could

not be seen anywhere else. Nevertheless, more efficient steam locomotives followed quickly

after; transforming society in England. Steam locomotives allowed shipments to be made quickly

and conveniently; leading many farmers to establish their land near railway tracks in order to

ship their products to be sold at market before they spoiled.17 The ease of transportation

increased the supply of goods, and therefore, decreased their cost. By reducing the price of
12
"James Watt - Maglab". Nationalmaglab.Org. N.d. Accessed March 25, 2020.
https://nationalmaglab.org/education/magnet-academy/history-of-electricity-magnetism/pioneers/james-watt.
13
John H. Lienhard. "Steam Engines in England". Uh.Edu. 2018. Accessed March 25, 2020.
https://www.uh.edu/engines/epi69.htm.
14
Michael Kernan. "The Steam Locomotive". Smithsonian Magazine. 1998. Accessed March 25, 2020
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-steam-locomotive-160577159/.
15
"The Railroad’s Effect on Time and Distance – Foundations of Western Culture:". University of Wisconsin –
Green Bay. 2016. http://foundations.uwgb.org/railroads-time-distance/.
16
Jackson Spielvogel. "The Industrial Revolution and Its Impact on European Society".
2014. Cengage Learning. Accessed April 1, 2020.
https://www.auburn.wednet.edu/cms/lib/WA01001938/Centricity/Domain/2217/36692_Spielvogel_9e_AP_Up
date_Ch20_rev03.pdf.
17
"The Railroad’s Effect on Time and Distance – Foundations of Western Culture:". University of Wisconsin –
Green Bay. 2016. http://foundations.uwgb.org/railroads-time-distance/.
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goods, larger markets were created as increased sales necessitated more factories and more

machinery.18 By 1840, Britain had almost 2,000 miles of steam-hauled railroads; by 1850, 6,000

miles of railroads – more than any other country in the world.19

In his 1854 novel Hard Times, Charles Dickens describes one of England’s many

industrial towns: “It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable

serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled”. England’s

industrial trailblaze may not have been an outwardly appealing site, but it is certainly an

impressive accomplishment.

Bibliography

18
Jackson Spielvogel. "The Industrial Revolution and Its Impact on European Society".
2014. Cengage Learning. Accessed April 1, 2020.
https://www.auburn.wednet.edu/cms/lib/WA01001938/Centricity/Domain/2217/36692_Spielvogel_9e_AP_Up
date_Ch20_rev03.pdf.
19
Ibid.
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Dickens, C., n.d. Hard Times. Page by Page Books, p.1.

"Enclosure Acts—Great Britain 1700–1801". University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, N.d.

Accessed March 11,
2020. https://www4.uwsp.edu/english/rsirabia/notes/212/enclosureacts.pdf.

"James Watt - Maglab". University of Florida. N.d. Accessed March 25, 2020.

https://nationalmaglab.org/education/magnet-academy/history-of-electricity-
magnetism/pioneers/james-watt.

Kernan, Michael. "The Steam Locomotive". Smithsonian Magazine. 1998. Accessed March 25,
2020 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-steam-locomotive-160577159/

Lienhard, John H. "Steam Engines in England". University of Houston. 2018. Accessed March

25, 2020. https://www.uh.edu/engines/epi69.htm.

"Liverpool And Manchester Railway". McGill University. N.d. Accessed April 1.

https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/l/Liverpool_and_Manchester_Rai
lway.htm.

Spielvogel, Jackson. "The Industrial Revolution and Its Impact on European Society".
2014. Cengage Learning. Accessed April 1, 2020.
https://www.auburn.wednet.edu/cms/lib/WA01001938/Centricity/Domain/2217/36692_S
pielvogel_9e_AP_Update_Ch20_rev03.pdf.

“The Commodification of a Blade of Grass: Enclosure in England.” WTH(istory). University of

Georgia, (2016). Accessed March 11, 2020. https://ctlsites.uga.edu/whatthehistory/the-
commodification-of-a-blade-of-grass-enclosure-in-england/.

"The Railroad’s Effect on Time and Distance – Foundations of Western Culture:". University of
Wisconsin – Green Bay. 2016. http://foundations.uwgb.org/railroads-time-distance/.

"The Spinning Jenny". The British Library Board. N.d. Accessed March 22, 2020.
https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item107855.html.

Titow, J.Z. "Medieval England and the Open-Field System." Past & Present, no. 32 (1965): 86-
102. Accessed March 10, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/649957.

Wendorf, Marcia. "James Hargreaves: The Inventor of the Spinning

Jenny". Interestingengineering.Com,
2019. Accessed March 16, 2020. https://interestingengineering.com/james-hargreaves-
the-inventor-of-the-spinning-jenny.

White, Matthew. "The Industrial Revolution". The British Library. 2009. Accessed March 22,
2020. https://www.bl.uk/georgian-britain/articles/the-industrial-revolution#.
Blackwood 7