Short essay on “The Industrial Revolution”by ARNOLD TOYNBEE

The Industrial Revolution is one of the most important facts in the English History that affected the whole world. According to Arnold Toynbee it is "the substitution of competition for the mediaeval regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of wealth". It is a process that started in England and later spread over Europe and the rest of the world by developing two systems of thought: the Economic Science, and its antithesis, Socialism.

The Economic Science has four chief landmarks. The first one is the publication of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations in 1776 in which he analyzed the causes of wealth focusing mostly on large production. On the other hand, Malthus, with his Essay on Population published in 1798, investigated the causes of poverty. A third stage is marked by Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy and Taxation in 1817, where he shows how wealth is distributed under the system of industrial freedom previously mentioned by Adam Smith. Last but not least, in 1848, John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy was published. Mill's book is very rational in analyzing pros and cons of competition, that system under which in order to become rich you have to produce the best goods for the lowest price. He also suggested how wealth should be distributed. As the matter of fact he understood that a system of free competition alone did not work: some rules should be added to make it better.

The Industrial Revolution was characterized by three important facts: a rapid growth of population, a positive decline in the agricultural population and an agrarian revolution which led to a significant decrease in the rural population. The main causes were: the destruction of the common-field system of cultivation; the enclosure of common and waste lands; the consolidation of small farms into large. Thus, because of the loss of enclosures, poor people had to move away in order to find a job. They moved to the North, where all the mines and industries were. In fact, mines provide fuel which makes machineries work.

However, this period was full of significant changes not only for the rural population but it meant the substitution of scientific for unscientific either by an agricultural and an industrial point of view. The extension of arable cultivation, the improvement of cattle breeding, the introduction of steam-plough and rotation of crops and the institution of agricultural societies made possible a huge agricultural improvement. In the same way mechanical inventions led to a rapid growth of textile industries. In 1770 Hargreaves patented the spinning-jenny; in 1769 Arkwright invented the water frame; Crompton’s mule was introduced in 1779; in 1792 Kelly invented the first self-acting mule; in 1769, James Watt patented the steam engine and in 1785 Cartwright patented the power-loom, one of the most famous inventions and the most fatal to domestic industry.

Nevertheless, the industrial and the agricultural system were not alone in this big clime of changes: a great advance in the means of communication made possible an increase in commerce. In 1777 the Grand Trunk Canal, which connected Trent and Mersey, was finished; some years afterwards the roads were greatly improved and a little later, in 1830, the first railroad was opened. Despite the already mentioned increase in commerce, the substitution of the factory system for domestic system is the second result of the improved means of communication.

All these changes gave birth to a revolution on the distribution of wealth, the one the economists such as Smith, Malthus, Ricardo and Mill, were discussing about. In agriculture, the prominent fact is an enormous rise in rents due, in part, to the money invested in improvements but, mostly it was the effect of the enclosure system, of the consolidation of farms and of the high price of corn during the French War.

As all the changes in history even the Industrial Revolution reflected on society and particularly on the manufacturing world. People such as farmers shared in the prosperity of the landlords becoming a distinct class and ceasing to work and live with their labourers whether common working people were often in misery because of fall in wages, the rise of prices and the sudden fluctuations of trade. The gap between the two classes is nothing more than a confirm of what Arnold Toynbee is trying to affirm. Indeed, according to him, despite all the positive changes and improvements that the Industrial Revolution brought, it proved that “free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being”.