The mechanisation, agrarian reforms and practises that enabled such an expansion did not exist in Germany until over one hundred years later when traditional guild privileges and serfdom were abolished. Only then did Germany’s cities see a notable urban workforce and German industrialisation got underway.
The mechanisation that improved farming methods soon extended to the production of goods. Cromford Mill in Nottingham in the mid 1700s used an elementary tool named the Spinning Jenny that was able to turn 8 spindles, in 1776, the mill employed a steam driven engine that was able to spin tens of thousands of spindles simultaneously. This illustrates the grand scale by which mechanisation altered Britain’s manufacturing industries and output increased.
Unscathed by the Napoleonic Wars, Great Britain now possessed the only merchant fleet of any useful size. European merchant fleets were destroyed during the war by the Royal Navy and enemy trade routes seized, therefore, damaging oppositions’ trading abilities. Britain’s geographical position as an island, separated from mainland Europe, meant the conflict was conducted overseas. Germany, on the contrary, located in the heart of Europe, was partly conquered by Napoleon and although this created a social division, it also created a growth in industry. The southern side of the Rhine Valley of Germany was integrated into France by Napoleon. At that time, France was more advanced industrially than Germany. This period of forced integration with France stimulated economic change in the Rhine Valley. In 1815, this area became independent of France but retained some of the economic and institutional reforms of the Napoleonic period. Serfdom and the guilds were abolished here. All remaining traces of feudalism (which restricted commerce and industry) were ended in a process much like during the British Agricultural Revolution, only Germany’s occurred a century later.
Initially, trade could not develop fast in Germany as a whole due to the small amount the region did produce, the many states all had customs barriers, import taxes and even export taxes so that shipping merchandise was expensive and inefficient. This was a large obstruction to German industrialisation until 1818 when the Zollverein (German Customs Union) was established. It was formed to manage customs and economic policies within their territories and did so on the whole successfully, therefore, alleviating the trade problems Germany previously had.
A crucial factor for the development of any nation in any respect is its political stability. Great Britain was well established and unified. Britain’s highly stable politics, growing empire and decent social structure enabled them to be interested in new feats such as industry, empire building, and technological innovations. This stability also resulted in a greater receptiveness to change, compared with other European countries. The togetherness of Britain is crucial to the question as to why she industrialised before Germany and indeed, before any other nation. (Moore, 1966, 28-30)
In contrast to Great Britain, Germany was very disunited and had fundamental problems with its wide array of kingdoms and dukedoms. The term “Germany” referred to a region of multiple territories, each of which spoke the German language and of these, only Prussia and Austria were substantial economic units. Such division was perhaps the paramount set back for German economic (and in many other respects) progress. Being disunited, the little states competed with each other economically rather than in one unified output. The nation of Germany was not until created 1871, a great time after long established and prosperous Great Britain began her industrialisation. Once a unified nation, Germany’s industrialisation could now begin to grow and compared to Britain, very quickly thrive.
Not only did Great Britain have a plentiful amount of resources like coal, iron ore, tin and limestone in close proximity, it also had great supplies of many differing resources from its immense range of worldwide colonies with which it traded with. For example, the textile industry of North Western England, notably Manchester, mainly imported their raw materials from India. Transporting goods and trade were facilitated by Britain’s most advanced navy in the world and a sophisticated canal system. (Hudson, 1992, 91-94, 120)
Germany had a small empire located exclusively in mid-Europe offering a limited array of materials for industrial growth. Its merchant navy was basic too. Germany overcame the problem of a resource deficit via the medium of trade after the founding of the Zollverein, though, this only occurred far after Britain’s initial industrialisation.
The 18th century’s industrial revolution would not have been able to progress if Great Britain had not already established the vital financial bureaucracy of a modern trading economy in the 17th century. It was in the latter half of the 17th century that Britain had launched three vital fiscal institutions. Firstly, a banking system to support invention and development. An insurance industry, meaning that people became more willing to undertake monetarily hazardous ventures and finally, a stock-exchange, allowing the wealthy to lend money to those who needed it for commercial and industrial reasons. Germany’s economic, trade and financial bureaucracy at this time were either non-existent or rudimentary during the 18th century, therefore, Germany did not have the institutions required for economic expansion until after it had begun industrialising, Britain having the advantage of having established such establishments prior.
Post unified Germany saw an immense surge in industrialisation and is evidence for unification being the greatest aid to industry. Following British example, an advanced railway network developed rapidly under the promotion of the German government. The first operative line was from Nuremberg to Furth. Before long, locomotive production outgrew Britain’s. The railway system increased the demand for steel and coal. The coalfields in the Ruhr Valley were fully developed and made Germany into the foremost coal producer in Europe. In addition, a steel industry developed and the stimulus of the coal and steel development expanded the banking and capital markets available to Germany. This helped other industries such as the chemical and electrical industries develop in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The German chemical industry became the most advanced in the world. This great industrial and economic triumph existing only after the German states were unified shows that of its numerous problems, disunity was Germany’s greatest setback in the face of industrialisation. (ERIH)
Victorian Britain was host to a new wave of interest in science paired with higher education standards often geared for science, leading to the crucial advancement in technology that Britain utilised for her industry. Engineers like George Stevenson who invented the steam engine and Isombard Kingdom Brunel, a pioneer of transport creating many notable bridges and tunnels, naturally, provided their new innovations to their own country first, then other countries obtained the blueprints and copied British processes when they were inclined and able to do so. Improved education and fervour for scientific advancement, being yet further factors for Britain’s prior industrialisation to Germany’s.
Overall, whilst Great Britain was a wealthy stable nation with a growing empire, Germany was a disunited, large collection of kingdoms until a great deal of time after Britain began industrialising. Instead of competing with other nations economically, German states competed internally. These political differences are paramount to the question as to why Britain industrialised before Germany. Britain had the capital and time to experiment with new technology. Germany had fundamental problems that required resolving prior to bonus achievements like industrial growth.
The numerous factors in Britain’s favour like mass food supply, easy access to plentiful and diverse resources, (Hudson, 1992, 91-94, 120) readily available cheap labour, owning the foremost merchant fleet and an immense empire show that Britain possessed a great head start over Germany which was a fractured region with social division, an unfavourable location for trade and a small empire.
Although there clearly exists many factors to answer the title, there appears to be one overriding main factor. The question as to why Germany industrialised after Great Britain is answered to a very great extent solely by the fact that Germany was devoid of unity as a nation and the great number of issues that such instability of a nation entails for its progress economically, socially and politically. (Moore, 1966, 29-30)
Despite the fact that industrialisation was wholly successful exclusively after unification, for many years in the build up to unification there were sincere German attempts at imitating the industrialisation that had taken place elsewhere in Europe. This imitation’s success was limited. In 1871, the nation of Germany was created and thereafter major industries were founded that led to the fully fledged industrialisation of Germany, therefore, unreservedly proving that unification was the key to Germany’s industrialisation.
Said reason, in addition to the numerous advantages that Britain possessed and disadvantages that Germany possessed, explains the timing of both nations’ industrialisation utterly.
Following Britain’s successful industrialisation, Belgium, France and then Germany followed suit, reproducing the processes that Britain pioneered and reaping the many socioeconomic benefits that being an industrial nation instigates. Today, the developed world enjoys great wealth and social living conditions having gone through the industrialisation process. To the developing world, Western Europe’s agricultural and Industrial Revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries serves as a model.
ERIH. (n.d.). Industrial History Germany. Retrieved from European Route of Industrial Heritage: www.erih.net/industrial-history/germany
ERIH. (n.d.). Industrial History | Great Britain. Retrieved from European Route of Industrial Heritage: http://www.erih.net/industrial-history/great-britain.html
Gildea, R. (2003). Barricades and Borders, Europe 1800 - 1914. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 3-7.
Hudson, P. (1992). The Industrial Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 91-94, 120.
Moore, B. (1966). Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Boston: Beacon Press. pp. 28-30.
Overton, M. (2005). Agricultural Revolution in England 1500 - 1850. Retrieved from BBC History: www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/agricultural_revolution_01.shtml
Veblen, T. (2006 edition) Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution. New York: Comiso Inc. Publishing
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gregapage (student)
