The Causes of the Industrial Revolution in Britain

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The Causes of the Industrial Revolution in Britain

The period in British history known as "The Industrial Revolution" brought about unprecedented changes to British society, culminating in the transition from a mainly cottage industry-based economy around the time of 1750 to a almost fully industrialised and machine-based economy around 1850. This period of change experienced increases of output in agriculture where "both output per hectare and output per person rose" and also in manufacturing industry where "there was spectacular growth in output and labour productivity in two industries, cotton textiles and iron smelting" (both from More, 1997). The growth increases in these two sectors lead to greater specialisation in terms of trade, and also spurred an accelerated rate of growth in the economy as a whole. However, despite the transformations made to the British Economy during the Industrial Revolution, economic historians are still in dispute as to what actually caused the Industrial Revolution - was it due to the supply side factors or were the demand side factors the more influential? David Landes (1969) states that there was a, "piling up of various factors which triggered off a chain reaction."

The demand side factors had the effect of not just simply increasing aggregate demand in the economy, but additionally exerting upwards pressure on prices, which then provided incentives for producers to increase production. One of the most important of these demand side aspects was the huge increase in population that became apparent at the start of the 19th century where the population of Britain had risen to 10.8 million from it's previous level of just 6.3 million in 1700 (an increase of over 66%). Before the 18th century, population increases had outran increases in agricultural output, which according to T.R Malthus (1798) resulted in the following: "as population doubles and redoubles, it is exactly as if the globe were halving and halving again in size - until finally it has shrunk so much that the supply of food falls below that necessary to maintain life" - known as the Malthusian Trap. However, this proved not to be the case in the 18th century where there was no apparent decline in living standards as a direct result of an increase in population. In addition to the increases in productivity as a result of population growth, the apparently stable levels of living standards aided the onset of the Industrial Revolution.
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In this period, there was not only an increase in domestic demand but also an increase in foreign demand of British goods, brought about as a result of stronger trade links forged after the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815) with France. The increase in trade was seen by many as "the engine which drove industrialisation forward" (More, 1997). However, it was only during the latter stages of the industrial revolution that British colonies became of major importance in terms of exports - most goods exported in the late 18th century were transported to either Europe or North America. Despite, this, ...

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