According to Toynbee’s definition, the Industrial revolution is a radical change in the system of production, that began in the United Kingdom in the 1780s. The essence of the Industrial Revolution is the substation of competition for the medieval regulations which controlled the production and the distribution of wealth. Competition means that in order to become rich you have to products the best products ever.

It affected the whole world because it developed two systems of thought: Socialism and Economic Science. These systems of thought are antithetical indeed Economic science in interested in economic matter, it tried to investigated the distribution of wealth while Socialism is based on the belief that everyone has an equal right to a share of a country’s wealth. Regarding Economic Science England has four important economists: the first one is Adam Smith who published his book Wealth of Nations in 1776. He tried to investigate the causes of wealth saying that the great object of the Political Economy of every country is to increase the reaches and power of that country. The second one is Malthus who published is Essay on population in 1798 who said that the growth or decrease of population are connected with production. Another important economist was Ricardo, who studied in his Principles of political economy and taxation (1817) the laws that regulated the distribution of wealth, and finally there was John Stuart Mill who published his book Principles of political economy in 1848 in which he studied how wealth ought to be distributed. Toynbee’s judgment about Mill was positive, one of the merits of Mill’s book was to be very rational to analyze pros and cons of competition. Mill was also influenced of Socialism, indeed he said competition alone is not a satisfactory basis of society.

Coming to the facts of the Industrial Revolution, the most important is the Agrarian revolution; the enclosure of lands and the use of the new machines caused a decrease in manual labour, so people moved to the north in search of work causing a decrease in agricultural population. North towns offered them work because there were mines which provided fuel used for the new machines.

Competition and the substitution of the factory for domestic system permitted very important advance in all areas. In agriculture the breed of cattle was improved, rotation of crops was generally introduced and agricultural societies were instituted. In cotton manufacture the spinning jenny, the water-frame and the self acting mule were invented. But the most important innovations was the steam-engine by Watt in 1769. All these innovations marked the introduction of the factory system that could grow thanks to the expansion of trade, which was due to the great advance in communications: lots of canals were finished, more than a thousand additional miles of turnpike were constructed, and in 1830 the first railroad was opened. These improved caused an extraordinary increase in commerce.

The new class of great capitalist employers made enormous fortunes, they took little or no part in the work of their factories.

Common people suffered for the bad conditions of labour, for the rise of prices and especially for the high price of bread. The effects of the Industrial Revolution prove that free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being.