The term ‘Industrial Revolution’ describes a gradual process of change that took place, chiefly in Europe and North America, in the 18th and 19th centuries, and then spread to much of the rest of the world.
Manufacturing of one kind or another had existed for millennia, of course, from the hand-axe industries of the Neolithic period to the bricks of Babylon. By the 18th century just two regions – the Indian subcontinent and China – were responsible for as much as three-quarters of the world’s manufacturing output. High-quality textiles and porcelain were exported as far as Europe. Most of this manufacturing took place in small-scale workshops, frequently rural rather than urban. Europeans had done much the same for many centuries. The workshop was only gradually replaced by mechanization and the factory system – the key features of the Industrial Revolution, together with mass urbanization. What followed was soaring productivity, and a huge surge in population due partly to a lowering of the age at which people had children, thanks to the independence conferred by wage labour.
Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in Britain? The country was politically united and stable, free from internal customs barriers (unlike much of Europe), and had an advanced banking system. Britain also profited from its geographical position on the Atlantic seaboard and its aggressive use of its navy to become, during the 18th century, the world’s leading mercantile power, far outstripping the Asian coastal economies. The trade in goods such as cotton, tobacco, sugar and slaves made huge profits for many merchants, who put away capital to invest in new industrial enterprises. Britain’s many ports and its many navigable rivers (backed later by a network of canals), fostered both external and internal trade.
Britain’s own natural resources also played a key part, especially its reserves of iron and coal. Previously iron had been smelted using charcoal, but the change to coke (derived from coal) brought a massive rise in output. Coal was also key to the technology that really got the Industrial Revolution going: steam. China and India, the other major centres of early industry, could not make comparable use of coal.
‘I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have – Power.’
Matthew Boulton, partner in James Watt’s steam engine business, as recorded by James Boswell (22 March 1776)
All kinds of ingenious new machines for spinning and weaving were developed during the 18th century. They needed less skilled operators than the older manual methods, and could turn out textiles in greater and greater quantities. At first the machines were driven by water power, particularly on the Pennine slopes of northern England, but coal-fired steam power enabled the construction of factories in many more locations. Steam engines had been used to pump water out of mines since the 18th century, but James Watt’s improvements in the last quarter of that century spread the technology to factories, and later to ships and locomotives, allowing the mass transit of both people and goods (see here ).
Other countries in Europe followed fast, notably France, Belgium and Germany. By the start of the 20th century Japan and Russia were also significant players, but the true industrial superpower – already the largest by the late 19th century and ready to dominate the 20th – was the USA. It benefited from plentiful natural resources, particularly coal, and from an entrepreneurial culture and society.
Although the Industrial Revolution was to bring unprecedented economic growth and eventually a real increase in wages, it inflicted considerable social costs. Working conditions were all too often dangerous and alienating, and living conditions all too often plunged the depths of squalor (see here ).