''To what extend did the growth of overseas trade led to Britain's Industrial revolution?''

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''To what extend did the growth of overseas trade led to Britain's Industrial revolution?''

Introduction

The development of Britain as a modern industrial economy, happened simultaneously with the expansion of foreign trade and that led many scholars to stress on the significance of exports. Some went even further to express the idea, that the growth during the industrial revolution depended on the overseas trade. During the industrial revolution,some of the major developing industries ,like textiles and coal,grew even more by selling their products abroad. The technological innovations of the late 18th century made the British goods cheaper,''attracting'' export markets,and soon Britain became the new commercial capital and the ''international industry'' of Europe because of its exports. However, it seems that this flourishing of trade did not contribute substantially to the industrial revolution since the benefits of trade in the economy are much higher after the classical years of industrial revolution,although the trade's importance should not be neglected or even worse be underestimated. For example,in 18th century, the proportion of national income derived from exports and then spent on imports doubled in comparison to the national income. However, in 19th century although the ratio of trade to national income