Arnold Toynbee's essay deals with the Chief Features of the Industrial Revolution.
The text 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 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 this process meant the birth of two different systems of thought : Economic Science and Socialism which are exactly the opposite one to another.
(Improved Version)
Then the author analyses the ideas of the economists' that developed Economic Science as his aim is to explain what it is and to show various opinions about free trade.
Afterwards Toynbee starts to give specific information about the Industrial Revolution in order to outline what happened in this period.
He marks out that English population had a great growth and that the agrarian population faced a significant decrease. This happened because many agricultural changes involved Britain. Those events are inquired and described by the author's use of accurate information.
Therefore he further develops the agricultural changes analysing the innovations that agriculture faced. He also claims that an important consequence was an increase in the production rate.
The essayist goes on underlining what innovations involved manufactures and the iron industry, which meant radical changes in the economy as the production increased and the demand became huge. Furthermore it's said that the improved means of communication allowed an increase in commerce and in the industry.
The writer also explains that this events brought to the change of the domestic system for the factory system and to periodical inflation's periods.
The next themes discussed by Toynbee's are the social changes linked to this period as he particularly outlines the role had by the farmers and their new class level, to better mark his ideas about the changes occurred during the Industrial Revolution. Besides, it's explained how they enriched and became an high class, losing their roots.
The writer goes on analysing the innovations among the manufactures, underlining the end of the human relation between masters and workers for a "cash nexus".
Finally the author takes back his arguments and explains his thesis, that " the Industrial Revolution may produce wealth without producing wealth-being."
This idea is linked to the theme of the misery that spread in that period, involving many sections of the society, caused by high pries and by trade's fluctuations, showing that Arnold Toynbee's ideas about welfare distribution are supported by many proofs.