Arnold Toynbee’s essay deals with the chief features of the Industrial Revolution. It opens with an introduction where the Revolution is defined as an historical process. Also its economic and social consequences are illustrated at a global level.
The essayist goes on developing an argumentation in order to explain the radical change brought about by the Industrial Revolution. He explains it mainly consisting in the substitution of competition “for the medieval regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of wealth”.
The consequences of the process meant the birth of the difference system of thoughts economic science and socialism which are exactly the opposite. Then the Autor reports the ideas of four great economists: Adam Smith,Malthus, Ricardo and John Stuart Mill. Then he passes at the facts of the Industrial Revolution:rapidy increase of population and also decrease in rural population. In the third and fourth paragraphs he speaks about the agricultural advance and its scientific approaches.During the Industrial Revolution there was also a growth of industry: in texile industry and in iron industry . In the first case the inventions was: the spinning- jenny by Hargraves in 1770, the water- fram by Arkwright, Crompton’s mule in 1779 and self acting mule by kelly in 1792 . In the second case the invention was: the steam engine to blast furnaces  and an engine for a cotton-mill . In paragraph 7 the writer analyzes the means of communication development, specifying the period and the place in which they were first built and what this meant in the distribution of wealth; he supports informations with quantitative data . In the ninth and tenth paragraph the writer explains that all these mechanical improvements certainly involved a remarkable increment of the wealth for capitalist employers but this also implied a following rising of prices, especially for prices of rents, causing a real social crisis for the lower classes.  In general the Industrial Revolution led social change in manufacturing world: a change in the balance of political power and in the relative position of classes . The most important sentence in this extract is: ”The effects of the Industrial revolution prove that free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being .” So according to Arnold Toynbee the Industrial revolution can generate more wealth without improving the welfare . In my opersonal opinion this is true . In conclusion I believe that the thesis and arguments are described by the writer are very important because they show us the conditions of English society during this period .