Why did the first Industrial Revolution take place in Britain and what were its main consequences?

Before we can consider whether any of these factors listed above by R M Hartwell could have produced growth in Britain, we should consider what is entailed in the process of growth.

It is clear that there is not just one clear reason but many different contributing factors to explain why the Industrial revolution first took place in Britain. Some people would say that although Britain is only a small island it was more than capable with coping with the changes that the first Industrial Revolution brought about. The main reason for this was said to be that Britain had a number of natural advantages, which included - a plentiful supply of coal and iron. D C Coleman argues that coal supplies were a more important determining factor than prior proto-industry in determining the success of the industrialisation process in Britain. He also argues that coal was essential not only to provide transportation of goods but also to fuel the machinery needed to create the goods. Another natural advantage of Britain was that it was well situated for foreign markets and exchanges, especially the expanding markets of the Americas. The third natural advantage was the excellent water transport that was available in Britain at the time of the Industrial Revolution.

Another reason why the Industrial Revolution was said to have occurred firstly in Britain was because of the crucial role agriculture played. According to P Deane he said that agriculture provided the means of feeding what was at the time a growing population. He also believed that Agriculture provided a surplus of money, which was made available by most to invest into the industry. The final way in which Deane believes Agriculture helped Britain, in terms of making the Industrial Revolution a success was the surplus of work and workers it created. Agriculture helped to create this surplus because there was no longer enough work created by Agriculture because industry was slowly taking over and was gaining the status of being the main form of economic activity which existed in Britain. This resulted in the surplus workers going to work in the factories as apposed to being unemployed. Another important factor, which would have obviously helped Britain’s cause during the time of the Industrial Revolution linked with the topic of agriculture, was the importance of the technical changes. These technical changes resulted in the productivity of Agriculture to be substantially raised. “This in turn resulted in Britain having a substantial surplus of the nations staple food which was extremely advantageous when we compare that to many under-developed countries today who have to use valuable foreign exchange to buy there food.”

As well as there being many reasons to why the first Industrial Revolution took place in Britain there are also many different consequences which came about through the process of the Industrial revolution. The first consequence of the Industrial revolution was the rate at which Factory Industry grew. Factory industry grew at an extensive rate, this was primarily due to the development of machinery and technological development in general. These technological developments helped the production costs to fall and this in turn resulted in the price of cotton to fall. Cheap cotton eventually forced its way into the countryside and onto the foreign market above more expensive woolen articles. Unlike in the 17th and 18th century when wool held the fate of Britain’s economy, because of the Industrial Revolution cotton in the 19th Century took over this role.

 

Another consequence of the Industrial Revolution concerning the growth of factory industry was that the family unit which existed, was seen to be breaking down. This was considered to be because more and more women were seeking employment. This trend was increased as hand spinning declined because factory owners realised that women were equally as efficient as men and men were considered more likely to cause trouble by combinations. Therefore, more jobs for women were made available and more women were tempted into work than ever before because of the development within the factory system during the period of the Industrial Revolution.

Since the industrial Revolution took place Agriculture has slowly, been undermined as far as being the main form of industry in Great Britain like it once was. Agriculture had formerly been not only the largest employer of labour but was the very basis of society. Since the development of the Industrial Revolution, this notion was undermined. This change from a society which once used to be classed as an agricultural society to one which was slowly changing into an industrial society also saw a change in the distribution of the population. With factories and industries being created in inner city areas more and more people in the hope of finding a job were moving to urban areas. According to Pat Hudson, English urbanisation in the early modern period was more rapid than anywhere else in Europe.  In the two centuries after 1600 the percentage of the total population living in towns quadrupled in England.  Urbanisation and the extent of how much it occurred was due to the introduction of the Industrial Revolution. For example, E A Wrigley said that in 1750 17.5% of the total population lived in towns this later increased to 24% of the total population in 1800. These figures certainly indicate that one of the main consequences of the Industrial Revolution was the increased effect it had on the distribution of the population.

As earlier indicated one of the main consequences of the Industrial revolution was that, the population grew rapidly in numbers. As a result of this, H.Heaton described the numbers involved in agricultural activity as being on a decline both relatively and absolutely. Because of this, the factory system became the main factor in the development of industry. Heaton said that because of this overproduction and depressions resulted in “a phenomenon quite unknown before”.  This phenomenon resulted in the landlords and manufacturers becoming increasingly prosperous where in comparison the wage earner fared badly. Heaton made another valid point by saying “Although the wage earner now has personal freedom, the war prices and the innumerable evils, which prevailed in, this age of confusion made his sufferings acute and long”.         

This statement indicates that although the Industrial Revolution has taken place there is still a great deal of division between social classes. In the 1960’s and 1970’s two people called Perkin and Thompson conducted a study into the division of society in terms of social class during the period of the Industrial Revolution. Perkin concluded that “ a class society is characterised by class feeling, that is by the existence of vertical antagonism between a small number of horizontal interest groups, each based on a common source of income. Such vertical antagonism and the horizontal solidarity of each class transcend the common source of income which supports them.”16

In Perkins view, the Industrial Revolution saw the birth of class in this sense. However, Perkin continues to argue that the conflict concerning social class because of the Industrial Revolution is only between different classes and not within the same class. 17

There can now be no question of how important the Industrial Revolution was and how influential it was in shaping our lives and the world in which we live in today. I have discovered that when we look at the topic of the Industrial Revolution there is no clear reason to why it begun but there are many contributing factors. I feel that I have highlighted this in the main body of my essay. However, I feel that the main reason to why the first Industrial Revolution took place in Britain has to lie with the topic of Agriculture. Agriculture created many different opportunities to enable the industry to grow. I also feel that I am able to conclude from the research that I have completed that the introduction of the Industrial Revolution brought about many different types of consequences. Some of which can be described as negative as well as positive. I have also discovered that the consequences brought about through the introduction of the Industrial revolution are immense. Therefore, I have concentrated on highlighting the main ones within the main body of my essay. I feel that the main consequence of the Industrial Revolution was the rapid growth of the population and the rapid development of urbanisation. This consequence had both negative and positive effects, which took place over both long, and short term, details of which were highlighted in the main body of the essay. Overall, I feel that I can confidently conclude that the way in which British citizens live their lives in the modern day has come about through the development of the Industrial revolution.  

 

 

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