In Great Britain during the nineteenth century, the agricultural system went into a crisis due to people who moved to big cities to work in the industries.

The decrease in rural population caused the destruction of the common field system of cultivation, the enclosure of common and waste lands and the consolidation of small farms into large.

The new agricultural system became more and more advance because of the innovative scientific approach which was based on the extension of arable cultivation, the tillage of inferior soils and the birth of an agricultural society.

Industries became bigger and bigger because of people coming from country lands to cities and in the mean time new tools were discovered such as: the steam engine and the power loom; in the textile industry came soon into use the spinning-jenny, the water frame, the mule and the self-acting mule and in the iron industry the blast furnaces and the new use to smelt by pit coal.

Because of the growth of industries, new improved means of communication were needed to make trade develop. As a result in 1830 the first rail road was opened, the roads were greatly improved under Telford and Macadam and the canal system was being rapidly developed.

All this process led to the Industrial Revolution which brought radical changes in England and in the western world such as the growth of two new opposite system of thought: Economical Science and Socialism.

The most important English economists (Adam Smith, Malthus, Ricardo and John Stuart Mill) studied those concepts and wrote books about the new way of production and distribution of wealth and its consequences to society and most of all to poor people and legislation.

Industrial Revolution led to the growth to two new social classes: the great employers who gained fortunes but took little part in the work and the labourers who worked hard but had just a little money.  The old relationship between the master and the labourer completely changed in a negative way and this led to class conflicts. As a result both the political and the social balance needed a revolution.  

At the same time, the revolution in distribution of wealth with the enclosure system, the consolidation of farms and the high price of corn caused rise in rents.

As a consequence misery started increasing among the poorest social classes.

All this proves that Industrial Revolution didn’t provide well-being even if it led to growth of population and wealth.