The population growth in England and Wales had several positive effects for Britain’s move into industrialisation. The increased population provided a large cheap labour force, which supplied the demand of factory workers. The more people in the country caused a stimulus of investment in industry and agriculture. As the demand for food and goods increased, entrepreneurs saw their chance to increase their income and businesses, and this also allowed social mobility for keen business stakeholders.
Population growth inspired Britain’s speculation in industry and agriculture, as there were growing demands for both. For the duration of the 18th century experimental work was carried out to improve crops yields and make animals capable of yielding more milk and better meat. New scientific principles were applied to farming such as selective breeding, these new methods of farming were written in journals, which spread the methods, by the likes of Charles ‘Turnip’ Townsend, who stressed the value of turnips and other field crops in a rotation system of planting rather than letting land lay fallow.
New up and coming inventions also helped, to plunge Britain into the industrial revolution, and the textile industry of Britain to grow rapidly. The requirement for quicker methods of manufacture was growing, especially in the cotton industry. The cotton supply from the Southern American colonies was becoming faster due to inventions such as the Cotton Gin, and so more rapid ways to spin the cotton was vital, to the sustainability of Britain’s wealth. The first cotton related invention of England came in 1733, when John Kay’s Flying Shuttle, a machine used to increase to speed of textile weaving machines, came into use. After which more new scientific and technical knowledge was applied to industry.
In 1764 James Hargreves invented the Spinning Jenny, which was small enough to enable cotton to be spun domestically, in ones home. In 1769 Richard Arkwright the so-called ‘Father of the Factory System’ realised the power potential of water and created the Water Frame. As the Water Frame could only be used on a large scale, near fast flowing water, and wasn’t suited to domestic use, more factories were built, which provided employment for the ever-expanding population. Arkwright and his partner Jedidiah Strutt opened the first cotton-spinning factory at Cromford, Derbyshire. The Water Frame revolutionised the way cotton was spun, because previous to the invention of the Water Frame all the machines were hand powered on a small scale. But once the waterpower potential was realised the spinning production of cotton increased, from 4,000 pounds to 4,500 pounds.
In 1782 James Watt invented the rotary steam engine, which used steam to produce a rotary motion, or power, factories no longer had to be built by fast flowing steams. Factories could now be built anywhere; therefore this encouraged the growth of industrial towns. During 1700 to 1760 many new inventions were created, and over 379 patents were awarded, which gave inventors exclusive rights, of their inventions. But this only gives a small suggestion of the total inventions of the 18th century, due to the fact that registering patents was very expensive. For example when Samuel Crompton invented the Spinning Mule in 1775, cotton production increase further and continued to increase right up until 1850, but Crompton didn’t register his Spinning Mule until 1780.
The improvement of internal communications and transport of Britain led to the linking of the major centres of trading and industry. The condition of roads weren’t very well maintained, due to under-funding. Local people thought, those who used the road should pay for maintenance. The result of this was that, Turnpike roads were introduced, financed by private turnpike trusts; that charged a fee for the repair of the roads.
But the problem still facing early industrialists was the cost of carrying heavy, bulky goods such as coal or iron ore. The solution was to use water transport, on rivers, coastal areas, and from the 1760s canals. The first phase of canal development took place in the 1760s and early 1770s. The second phase, in 1790s has been dubbed ‘Canal Mania’ with the completion of several important canals and the setting-up of 51 new schemes. By 1820, the canal network linking all the major centres of industrial production was largely completed. The canal network created a cheaper system of transport available for goods and passengers, resulting in the fall in prices of raw materials, like coal, timber, iron, wood and cotton.
The railway was another growing form of transport, which was in competition with canals. In 1830 the world’s first passenger railway, between London and Manchester was opened. The railway had immediate success, which stimulated a railway investment boom. By 1850 over 6,000 miles of track had been laid and the ‘railway age’, had arrived. Miles of track-covered Britain, and even London to Glasgow was linked by the popular transportation. In 1852 the results of the investment in railways was apparent, the railways offered more speed than the canals, this ensured that trade was working at its fastest. The railways also enforced national organisation, for example clocks had to be the same all around the country, otherwise train schedules wouldn’t of been able to exist.
An additional reason why Britain became the first industrial nation was the government it possessed. At the time of the industrial revolution Britain had a well-established government who greatly encouraged economic expansion. The English Government allowed the domestic economy to function with few restrictions and encouraged technological change. Many British merchants had large amounts of capital for investment in new industrial enterprises, compared with Europeans. This was due to the free internal trade in Britain, unlike Europe, where a merchant would have to pay tax when crossing the border of a country. The British Government used a ‘Laissez- Faire’ policy on its country; in other words the Government just let England be, and kept it a united, stable and peaceful country.
Even though Britain’s industrial revolution benefited Britain’s economy and stimulated change, there were side effects to this extent of economic change. Arnold Toynbee was a historian of the period of change, whose publication in 1884, Lectures on the Industrial Revolution painted a picture of the industrial revolution that had had catastrophic consequences for the mass of the people. This period, he wrote, had been ‘as disastrous and as terrible as any through which a nation passed’. The 1880s was a decade in which poverty was ‘rediscovered’, after half a century of economic growth which had brought the nation untold wealth, the lives of so many people were lived in poverty, squalor and ill health. For Toynbee as well as other historians such as Beatrice Webb and Barbara Hammond, the industrial revolution had had consequences, which were nasty, mean and brutish.
Overall Britain was the first industrial nation and became the ‘Workshop of the World’ due to many crucial factors. It is very difficult to suggest a factor that was the foremost important, and influential of all. The three biggest factors, which were an affect to each other and resulted in the industrialisation of Britain, were overseas trade, the geographical diversity of Britain, and population growth. These factors were the basis of the economic growth in Britain, and they provoked other factors, which led to the industrialisation of Britain; Population growth stimulated demand that entrepreneurs were able to satisfy. Investment in industry often brought good returns. The state made little attempt to control growth. Foreign trade provided the raw materials and profits that could be invested in each enterprise. The industrialisation of Britain was a revolutionary process, which would prove to be easily gained by other countries and ultimately detrimental to Britain’s supremacy prospects.