The Industrial Revolution is a radical change in the system of production, from an agrarian and maritime economy to an industrialized economic system and it is a long process that affected, the end of the 18th century, first Britain and then he whole world. 

The Industrial Revolution led to the substitution of competition for the medieval regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of wealth. In addition it developed two systems of thought that are antithetical: Economic science and Socialism. 

Economic Science tried to understand the laws which regulated the production and distribution of wealth. Four economists writed treatises which represents the chief landmarks and they were written in coincidence of important historical events. 

The fist one is Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776 - American War of Indipendence) in which he investigated the causes of wealth. Then, there is Malthus’ Essay on population (1798 - French Revolution) in which he studied the cause of poverty. The third one is Ricardo’s Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817 - Congress of Wien) where the writer studied the laws of distribution of wealth. Finally Mill writed Principles of Political Economy (1848 - Revolutionary movement and Greek Indipendence) where he writed about how welath should be distributed. He is very rational when he analizes the pros and cons of competition. In fact a competitive and capitalistic society developed: companies tried to sell the best product for the cheapest price. But he says that competition alone is not a satisfactory basis of society.

The Industrial Revolution caused radical changes in agriculture (distruction of common-field system of cultivation and a decline in the agricultural population, enclosure of common and waste lands which drove people off the lands and towards the north where there were factories and mines, consolidation of small farms into large which reduces the number of farmers). This process is called Agrarian Revolution and it was due to the decrease of rural people who had to go away because of the scientifc discoveries that allowed the use of machinery and so less people could work in farms.

Speaking about industries, there were a lot of innovations, in particular in the textile industry: the spinning jenny, the water frame, the self-acting mule, the steam-engine, the power-loom (it mechanized the cotton indusrty). 

In addition the stem-engine revolutionized the sector of transports. In fact it was applied to steamboats and locomotives and so waterways, the canal system, roads, railways were built and it allowed a faster communication among countries and an easier trade because raw material was brought in a single place and the finish product could be sold in colonial countries too. So factories were introduced and they became the new main unit of the system. It concentrated production in one place but it involved bad conditions for workers. 

Finally this system implied a regular recurrence of periods of over-production and of depression.

Moreover the Revolution had completely changed the British society, spreading the difference between the rich and the poor. The landlors of the farms became very rich and lived in luxury while their labourers lived in extreme poverty because of the high prices of corn, bread and rents. So workers gave birth to the Trade Union Movement and the wanted to improve working conditions. First, the movement was illegal but later, in 1824 it was legalized.

In conclusion, you can assert that the effect of the Industrial Revolution prove that free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being