Learning Paths » 5C Interacting
The Industrial Revolution is the result of the substitution of competition for the medieval regulations which once controlled the production and distribution of wealth.
It's not only important for the history of England but Europe owes to it the growth of 2 great systems of tought: Economic sciences and his antithesis, Socialism.
The landmarks of the development of economic science are connected with the names of 4 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" (1789) : he was interested in the causes of poverty and found them in his theory of population.
Ricardo's "Principles of political economic 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 even of our time. It has often bee named 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 named:
- Competiotion in production
- Competition in distribution
Trade unions try to prevent oppression of the labourers and the driving down of their wages. Legislation regulates competition in distribution.
Facts of the Industrial Revolution
The events leading the Industrial Revolution are:
1. rapid growth of population
1.b. decline in agricultural population (the cente of density of population has shifted from the Midland to the North)
2. Agrarian Revolution: the decrease in the rural population was due to:
1. the distruction of the common-fields system of coltivation
2. the enclosure on a large scale of common and wasted lands
3. the consolidaton of small farms into large
These changes brought a distinct improvement from ana gricultural point of view è SCIENTIFIC COLTURE TO THE PLACE OF UNSCIENTIFIC COLTURE
Great agricultural advance: the breed of cattle was improved, rotation of crops introduced, and the invention of steam-plough.
3. Revolution in Manufacturing Industries was due to the substitution of the factory for the domestic system: it was a consequence of the mechanical discoveries of the time
Cotton manufacture was altered by:
•1. the spinning-jenny
•2. the water frame
•3. the mule
•4. the steam engine
•5. 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. A system of canals
2. Improvement of roads
3. Construction of turnpike roads
4. The first railroad (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 defect of enclosures 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 è LANDLORDS but they soon lost most of their wealth during the war.