"The Chief Features of the Industrial Revolution " is a passage made out from an Arnold Toynbee's work, published in 1884. It is an essay organized in 11 paragraphs and it deals with the historical process  known as the Industrial Revolution underlining that it changed from the roots some important aspects of the nineteenth-century England . In particular he studies the consequences and the facts of this process.        

 With the aim of demonstrate that the Industrial Revolution's consequences ( as free competition) may produce wealth without producing well-being , the writer starts the essay with a general introduction about the process, giving the reader also its definition : " The essence of the Industrial Revolution is the substitution of competition for the medieval  regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of wealth"  ( 2^nd paragraph) ; then he lists four chief landmarks that, in their works studied the topic of wealth and poverty related to the effects of the Industrial Revolution; these men are Adam Smith who wrote the " Wealth of Nations " , Malthus who published " Essay on Population" , Ricardo , author of " Principles of Political Economy " and John Stuart Mill, whose work  was    " Principles of Political Economy".

In the 3^rd paragraph Toynbee analyzes the facts of this Revolution , especially ( in the following paragraph) the decrease in rural population and the agricultural advance , giving the reader ( par.5) also some quantitative informations about the growth of population and the number of acres enclosed.

The paragraph 6 deals with the factory system and the irony industry in regard of mechanical discoveries of the period. 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 ( paragraph 8) ; he supports informations with quantitative data .

Before reaching a conclusion Toynbee scans how the altered conditions in the production of wealth changed farmers' character and habits, observing that an analogous phenomena appeared in the manufacturing world ;then in the 10^th paragraph he talks about the causes of working people's misery, often caused by the conditions of labour, the rise of prices and the fluctuation of trade .

In the conclusion the historian underlines that wealth and well-being aren't strictly connected and supports this statement mentioning the horrors that ensued in England before it was restrained by legislation and combination.

Improved Version

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 his argumentation in order to explain the radical change brought about by the Industrial Revolution . He explains it mainly consisted 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 two different systems of thought, Economic Science and Socialism that are exactly the opposite; regarding the Economic Science he lists the titles of four great English economists ‘works connected with the development of this system of thought. In the 3rd paragraph the writer comes to the revolution's facts analyzing the rapid growth of population and the relative and positive decline in the agricultural population; he raises these informations with some quantitative data. In the following paragraph he focuses his attention on the agrarian revolution's role in the industrial change and he finds that the rural population decrease was caused by the destruction of the common-field system of cultivation, the enclosure and the consolidation of small farms into large that forced farmers to move and found work in the city's industries. On the other side there were some positive changes in the agricultural world; in particular there were more scientific approaches, the breed of cattle was improved, the crops rotation was generally introduced, the steam-plough was invented and agricultural societies were instituted. In the 6th paragraph Toynbee passes to manufactures and observes that the domestic system substitution with the factory one was helped by some mechanical discoveries. The most important invention of all is the steam engine (created by James Watt in 1769 and later applied to the cotton manufacture, to the iron industry and to some means of transport). The essayist continues his work writing about the improvement in the means of communication ( par. 7). In particular he writes about the canal system, the turnpike road and the railroad and he notes that the means of communication improvement caused an extraordinary increase in commerce also because securing a sufficient providing was easier. In the 8th and 9th paragraphs he looks at the revolution effects in the distribution of wealth and at the social changes they caused; he notices that the rise in rents , caused by money invested in improvements, enclosure system, farm's consolidation and high price of corn, leads many farmers to held their farms under beneficial leases which made them able to make large profits. That's why their character and habits changed. On the other side working people lived in misery, often caused by the conditions of labour, the rise of prices and the trade fluctuation. The historian concludes the essay underlining that, how the Industrial Revolution effects show, wealth and well-being aren't strictly connected and often, something producing wealth may not produce well-being.