The Chief Feature of the Industrian Revolution was written in 1884 by Arnold Toynbee. In this is argumentative text the writer develpos his analysis of the main facts of this historical process which brought a lot of radical changes all over the world.

 

First of all Toynbee gives his personal definition of the Industrian Revolution: it's the substition of the mediaeval system that controlled the production and distribution of wealth. After that he continues with the consequences of the event creating two system of thought: Economic Science and Socialism. In order to explane these two structure he brings example. As a matter of fact he focuses the attention on the Economic Science using four book of four great English economists. Primarily Toynbee reportes Adams Smith's "Wealth of Nation" in which the writer presented the causes of wealth: Smith studied economic trouble through problem of wealth and he understood that goods were not well and equally distribuited. Later on there is Malthus' "Essay on Population" about the causes of poverty. Third pubblication is Ricardo's "Principles of political Economy and Taxtation" in which he argued how wellness was distribuited. The last one is "Principles of political Economy" of Jhon Stuart Mills who tried to find out a more fair solution to distribuite the goods produced.

 

Going on with his essay, Toynbee analyses two facts brought out by the Industrial Revolution. The first one is the growth of population and he supports it with quantitative data showing the noticeable increase of people.

 

The second one is the Agrarian Revolution which provoced a relevant decrease of agricultural population: the distruction of common system fields, the enclosures and the consolidation of large farms didn't need manual labour and as a result the request for agricultural people decreased. In fact the Agrarian Revolution due to a more rational cultivation. So Toynbee advances three examples: the breed of cattle, the rotation of crops and steam engine.

 

In addition to this point the writer also adds the innovetion in industries. Toynbee starts with the mechanical inventions in textile industris which are the spinning-jenny, the water frame, Crompton's mule and the self-acting mule although the most important are the steam engine and the power loom. After that he deals with the mechanical revolution in iron industry and he presents two examples: the smelting by pit coat and the steam engine applicated to blast furnaces.

 

All these changes improved means of communication like canal system, roads and especailly railroads used for a rapid transporting of raw materials to factory.

 

Going on with his argumentation Toynbee mantains that these revolutions brought to a revolution in distribution of wealth with rise in rents caused by: money invested in improvements, enclosures system, the consolidation of farms and the high price of corn. In order to prove this he gives some data.

 

At the end of his argumentative text Toynbee analyses the social revolution and changes in the balance of poitical power and in the relative position of casses. The farmer became landlords but also a distinct class which made large profits under their farms. Moreover the relationship between masters and men disappeared and workers began to form trade clubs or associations to look after their interests.