The Chief Features of the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period of changes, it started in England and it spread in all Europe in the 18th century.

During the Industrial Revolution two important systems if thought were formed: Economic Science and Socialist.

The most famous economist studied the Economic Science: Adam Smith investigated the causes of wealth, Malthus wrote about the population and he concentrated his attention on the causes of poverty; Ricardo tried to explain the laws distribution of wealth; another economist was John Stuart Mill, who tried to show the difference between the laws of production and the laws of distribution.

The most important changes of the Industrial Revolution were the growth of population and the decline in the agricultural population.

Three important transformations involved the agriculture: the destruction of the common-field system of cultivation, the enclosure and the consolidation of small farms into large farms.

The period was one of the great agricultural advance with the invention of the steam-plow and the use of the rotation of craps.

The cotton manufacture was changed by four great inventions: the spinning-jenny, the water-frame, the Crompton's mule and the self-acting mule.

In 1769 James Watt patented he steam-engine, an important discovery for the cotton manufacture.

The power-loom was the most famous invention of all.

The great advance in the means of communication took a growth of the factory system: a consequence of this expansion of trade was the periodical recurrence of periods of over-production and periods of depretion.

In conclusion the Author said that "the effects of the Industrial Revolution prove that free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being". This observation explain how the revolution influenced that period.