The present  essay deals with the changes and the innovations caused by the Industrial Revolution asillustrated by A. Toynbee's text.  His purpose is to prove that "free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being" providing examples and argumentations. In order to reach his aim he organized his essay into 10 paragraphs and a conclusion.

The first paragraph, that covers three lines, is a declaration of intentions. Afterwards Toynbee analyses the changes produced by the Revolution in the mentality of Europeans. The paragraph having this purpose is divided into three parts: a definition of Industrial Revolution; an evaluative part showing the Industrial Revolution as one of the most important facts in history owing to the development of two  systems of thought (Economic Science and its opposite Socailism), tigether with some quotations from 4 books written by the famous economists of the period to highlight the dynamics of those radical changes.

The third paragraph is the first paragraph that deals with facts of the Revolution: the rapidity in population growth  and the decline in the agricultural population. Both facts are supported by quantitative data that are analysed and compared with the situation previous to the revolution.

The following lines are aimed atillustrating the reasons of the decrease in rural population mentioned. Toynbee poses a question to introduce the issue and after that  quotes the ideas of three authoritative scholars to support his thesis.

The reader's attention is later r shifted to technology and the role it played along the process that brought competition to the forefront. The paragraph is organized so as to show the advancements in agriculture due to the replacement of scientific in place of the previous  family tools of production. To uphold his thesis firstly Toynbee exploits a quotation and he later offers a list of improvements as a consequence of the more scientific approach adopted in agriculture.

The sixth paragraph is organized into three sub parts. The first is illustratiive and lists inventions patented during the Revolution and informs they played an important role in cotton manufacture. In the following comparative part the condition of workers is analysed and changes are highlighted through data and comparisons with the previous situation of workers. Lastly, the increase of the iron manufacture is shown  mentioning the inventions that revolutionised it.

The later paragraph analyses the growth of the factory system from a different point of view: the advance in the means of communication. Firstly, there are information suitable to to analyse the growth of three means of communication. Then the consequences of this growth on commerce are analysed . The last lines are aimed at exposing the differences between the domestic and the factory system of production.

After that A. Toynbee deals with the distribution of wealth after the Revolution. The rise in rents is analysed; the reasons Toynbee provides for this are exposed in an informative paragraph that presents quantitative data.

Paragraph nine shows the different situations of employers and workers and the changes occurred in the manufacturing world caused by the enrichment of employers and it also underlines how any relationship between master and worker disappeared.  The last lines analyse the reasons of the misery of workers listing three causes that led them to this condition.

The conclusion sums up the aspects of the Revolution highlighted along the argumentation and wants to be a warning to the reader in that it advances the idea that  free competition is not necessarily a synonymous for  well-being.