THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The industrial revolution is the result of the substitution of the competition for the medioeval regulation which ones controlled the production and distribution of wealth.

It is not only important for the history of England but Europe owes to it the growth of two great systems of though:

Economic Sciences and its antithesis, Socialism.

The landmarks of the development of Economic Science are connected with the names of four great English economists' output:

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776): he investigates the causes of wealth. It was the production of wealth which interested him. He wanted to increase the riches and power of the country.

Malthus's Essay on Population (1798): he was interested in the causes of poverty and found them in his theory of population.

Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817): he tried to discover the laws of distribution of wealth.

John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy (1848): he tried to distinguish between the laws of production and those of distribution. He studied the ways in which wealth ought to be distributed.

Competition is the dominant idea in even of our time.

It has often been named the struggle for existence.

We must distinguish between struggle for existence and struggle for a particular kind of existence.

Without competition, no progress would be possible but Socialists maintain that this advantage is gained at the expense of an enormous waste of human life and labour. They add that the expense might be avoided by regulation.

A distinction must be made:

A - Competition in production

B - Competition in distribution

Trade Unions try to prevent oppression of the labourers and the driving down their wages. Legislation regulates competition in distribution.

Facts of the Industrial Revolution

The events leading to the industrial revolution:

1 - Rapid growth of population

A - decline in agricultural production (the centre of density of population has shifted from the Midlands to the North)

2 - Agrarian Revolution: the decrease in the rural population was due to:

A - the destruction of the common -field system of cultivation

B - the enclosure on a large scale of common and vaste lands

C - the consolidation of small farms into large

This changes brought a distinct improvement from an agricultural point of view.

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Scientific culture took the place of unscientific culture

Great agricultural advance: the breed of cattle was improved, rotation of crops introduced, invention of steam-plough.

3 - Revolution in manufacturing industries: was due to the substitution of the factory for the domestic system.

It was the consequence of the mechanical discoveries of the time.

Cotton manufacture was altered by:

• the spinning-Jenny
• the water frame
• the mule
• the steam engine
• the power loom

Iron industry:

• Invention of smelting by pit-coal application of the steam engine to blast furnaces.

4 - Expansion of trade was made possible by the great advance in the means of communication:

1) canals or a system of canals

2) improvement of roads

3) construction of turnpike roads

4) the first railway (1870)

5) revolution in the distribution of wealth

In agriculture rents rose. The rise was due to money invested in improvements but it was also the effect of the enclosure system, of the consolidation of farms and of the high price of corn during the French war.

This situation led to social changes in country life: a new class was born -> landlords, but they soon lost most of their wealth during the war.