The Chief Features of the industrial Revolution is an essay about the Industrial Revolution, the period in which the competition became the new system of control of the production and distribution of wealth, regulating the price of good in relation with offer and demand.

In addition Tynbee explains how in that period grew two systems of thought: the Economic Science and Socialism.

So he starts quoting the 4 greatest economists of the period: Adam Smith, Malthus, Ricardo and John Stuart Mill. In 1776 A. Smith wrote "Wealth of nations", in which he investigates the causes of wealth in the nations. In  1798, Malthus wrote "Essay of Population" analyzing the causes of poverty. The third one was Ricardo, who showed how wealth is distributed under this new system. The last one was  John Stuart Mill that published his book in 1848.

Toynbee continues explaining the causes of the agrarian revolution, which caused the move of the peasants to the great industrial city. These changes were: the sostitution of common field system for the private propriety (enclosure) and the consolidation of small farms into large, also due to the introduction of some new inventions like the spinning jenny,  the self-acting mule and the water frame.

These discoveries also were the fortune of the factory system, because increased the production.

There was also an expansion of trade, thanks to the construction of canals, turnpike roads and railways, that made the move of goods easier and faster.

In conclusion Toynbee explains how the Industrial Revolution produced wealth without producing well-being, because the wealth was not equally distributed.