LBravo - homework 28/01/2019

Final summary of "The Chief Features of The Industrial Revolution"

The Industrial Revolution is a process that changed England from a Country with an agrarian and maritime economy to one characterized by an industrialised economic system. It led to the substitution of competition (connected to a production on a large scale) for the mediaeval regulations, which had previously controlled the production and the distribution of wealth. Above all, this process generated an expansion of trade and a substitution of factory system for a domestic system.

It led to growth of two systems of thought: Economic science and Socialism. The first system has four chief landmarks: Adam Smith's “Wealth of Nations” (1776), Malthus' ”Essay on Population” (1798), Ricardo's ”Principles of Political Economy and Taxation” (1817), Mill's ”Principles of Political Economy” (1848).

The Industrial Revolution implied a growth of population and a decline in the agricultural population, caused by: the destruction of the common-field system of cultivation, the enclosures of common and waste lands and the consolidation of small farms into large ones.

However, there was an agricultural advance connected to a more scientific approach; indeed, were introduced: the breed of cattle, the rotation of crops, the steam-plough, and agricultural societies.

Also industry grew, through mechanical inventions in textile industry: the spinning Jenny (1770), the water frame (1769), Crompton’s mule (1779), the self-acting mule (1792), and, last but not least, the steam engine and the power-loom. Also the revolution in iron industry was fundamental for this growth: it was punctuated by the invention of smelting by pit-coal and by the application of the steam engine to blast furnaces.

Moreover, the canal system was improved, roads were implemented and the first railroad was created.

During this period there was also a rise of rents, because of: the rental of the land, the enclosure system, the consolidation of farms, and the higher price of corn.

On the social level, the Industrial Revolution changed the balance of political power and the relative position of classes. The new class of great capitalist employers made enormous fortunes, taking little or no part personally in the work of their own factories, while their hundreds of workmen were individually unknown by them. This caused: a disappearance of the relations between masters and men, the substitution of a “cash-nexus” for the human tie, and class conflict. People in condition of misery (caused by a fall in wages generated by the decrease of the demand, the sudden fluctuations of trade, and the rise of prices) organized themselves first in illegal combinations and then in legal trade unions.

The effects of the Industrial Revolution prove that free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being. As a consequence, a lot of horrors ensued in England before it was restrained by legislation and combination.