Pietro Casarolli      
Classe 5^B        17/09/2012

DISCORSO RIGUARDO I PUNTI FONDAMENTALI DELL' "INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION"

During the nineteenth century developed in England the Industrial Revolution,
one of the most important facts of English history because it changed the
medieval mentality of trade, creating two great system of taught: Economic
science and Socialism. During this period economists such us Adam Smith,
Malthus, Ricardo and John Stuart Mill wrote books producing new ideas about
wealth, large production, and industrial 
freedom. With the growth of population and the positive decline in
agricultural population, caused by the destruction of common-field system of
cultivation, the enclosure and the consolidation of small farms into large;
lots of people moved from the country to the town to look for an opportunity of
work. Meanwhile, thanks to the agrarian revolution, new machinery was invented
and was introduced also agricultural advance as the breed of cattle, the
rotation of crops and the steam-plough. Passing to manufactures, the
substitution of the factory for the domestic system is the fact that caused the
invention of textile machinery; the spinning-jenny(1770), the
water-frame(1769), the mule(1779) and the self-acting mule(1792). In 1769 James
Watt took out his patent for the steam-engine. But the most important invention
was the power-loom that increased the wages of the weavers.

In the iron industry the most important inventions were the pit-coat and
the stream-engine to blast furnaces(1788)

In communication the commerce was increased by the construction of the
canal system, the fastest way to transport goods, and the opening of road and
railroad(the first in 1830).

In agriculture the rent of the lands yielded lots of money invested in
improvements, but it was far largely the effect of the enclosure system, of the
consolidation of farms, and of the high price of corn: it represented a great
social revolution because farmers changed their habits, affording new food and
furniture, the luxury and drinking.

In conclusion the effect of  the
Industrial Revolution prove that free competition may produce wealth without
producing well being!