Great Britain During The Industrial Revolution
Great Britain was the leader of the industrial revolution in the 17th century while the rest of the modern world was struggling to catch up. The industrial revolution was made possible due to the many changes and innovations in the agricultural industry. The Agricultural Revolution did away with the old medieval communal method of farming, privatized the land, and introduced scientific breeding and farming techniques which increased the agricultural production significantly. These new processes created a decline in both the intensity of the work and the number of agricultural laborers needed.
At the beginning of the agricultural revolution farm people chose to migrate to the city to work industrial jobs. Also the increased food supply resulted in an unprecedented population increase, thus providing more able workers for the industrial labor force. Other contributing factors were that Britain had large amounts of iron and coal, which were necessary for industrialization. Also, England had a stable political standing, allowing it to function with full support from parlement. This means that any change to the industries that were booming at the time were more or less accepted without any struggle. The invention of the steam engine along with the booming iron and textile industries, played central roles in the industrial revolution. Also England soon had improved transportation, communication and banking systems.
As demand for British goods increased, merchants desired a more reliable and efficient way to mass produce products hence came the mechanical made products domination over hand made. Mechanized agriculture is using machinery and thus reducing manual labor and improving production. The factory system is a capitalist form of production whereby the owner is responsible for just about everything, from the raw materials to the management of the factory. This of course made the owner also responsible for any resulting losses. The growth of industrialization was due to the ability to transport materials over long distances efficiently. There were three main ways to transport goods: waterways, roads, and railroads. At that time, transportation by water was the cheapest way to move heavy products such as coal and iron. This was due to the abundance of the waterways in Britain and their close proximity to coal and iron mines.
Also, Britain has a long and vast coastline that made transportation by sea easier. Scottish engineer John McAdam developed a new process for road construction. His invention called the “macadam” allowed roads to be built that were much smoother than their counterparts and were less muddy. Communication became more accessible with the creation of the telegraph in 1791. This lead to an increase in product shipment and arrival times along with more efficient time management in trade.
In total just about everything you could think of was going in Britain’s favor at the time. They were the world power at the beginning of the industrial revolution and along with this they also had efficient transportation to transport their goods across the country and all over the world.
