THE CHIEF FEATURES OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The text is an extract from Arnold Toynbee's book "The Industrial Revolution", written in 1884.The text is an argumentative text: it means that there is a thesis supported by different argumentation.

First of all Toynbee says that the Industrial Revolution means the substitution of competition for the medieval regulations in the system of production and distribution of wealth. Competition means that there are different factories that offer similar products but people buy the best product at the lowest price.

The Industrial Revolution led to grow of two systems of thought: Economic Science and its antithesis: Socialism.

Economic Science is based on four chief landmarks that are very important books written by four great economists:

Adam Smith (Wealth Of Nations - 1776)

Malthus (Essay On Population - 1798)

Ricardo (Principles Of Political Economy and Taxation - 1817)

John Stuart Mill (Principles Of Political Economy - 1848).

Going on Toynbee explains two very important facts of the Industrial Revolution: the growth of population and the agrarian revolution.

The first one is caused by a general improvement in people's life. There was more richness than before.

The second one consists in a decrease of rural population caused by the Enclosure, the destruction of the common field system and the consolidation of small farms into larger.

On the contrary, there was a more scientific approach to agriculture strictly connected with new discoveries(the breed of cattle, rotation of crops, the steam-plough).

The growth of industry was caused by mechanical discoveries (in textile industry: the spinning-jenny, the water-frame, the mule, the self-acting mule, the steam-engine and the power-loom; in iron industry: pit-coal and steam-engine) and by the improvement of means of communication like canal systems, roads and railroads.

Direct consequences were the passage from a family/domestic system to a factory system and the change from independence to dependence.

In the next paragraph Toynbee speaks about rise in rents caused by money invested in improvements, the effect of the enclosure system, the consolidation of farms and the high price of corn. These factors caused a revolution in distribution of wealth.

People who worked in factories often lived in terrible conditions and there were many people who lived in conditions of misery: misery was often caused by

a fall in wages, the rise of prices and the fluctuations of trade.