Activities
 
Complete the following notes. They will give you an outline of the information contained in the passage. The main points, relations of cause-effect, illustrations etc. are clearly indicated in the text by logical connectors. Look out for them. 
 
•  (par. 1) The Industrial Revolution is one of the most important facts of English history.
It is the substitution of competition for medieval regulations about the production and distribution of wealth. People produce goods; goods are distributed in the market. The law is the competition. The market is regulated by the interchange between demain and offer. The period in which the Industrial Revolution started to develop was the end of the 18th Century. The Industrial Revolution goes together with the process of urbanisation. This process, based on competiton, takes place of the medieval world based on the production and distribution of wealth.
It led to growth of two systems of thought:
1) Economic science                      2) Socialism 

a) Adam Smith Wealth of Nations (1776)
b) Malthus Essay on Population (1798)
c) Ricardo Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817)
d) John Stuart Mill Principles of Political Economy (1848)
 
 
 • (par. 2-3) Facts of Industrial Revolution. 
1) fast growth of population
2) An agrarian revolution plays as large part in the great industrial change
 
 
• (par. 4) Decrease in rural population.
causes:  the destruction of the common-field system of cultivation; the enclosure, on a large scale, of common and waste lands; and the consolidation of small farms into large.

• (par. 5) Agricultural advance.
cause — more scientific approach:
e.g.  
extension of arable cultivation
improvement of cattle breeding
introduction of: steam-plough, rotation of crops
agricultural societies

• (par. 6-7) Growth of industry.
causes;
1) mechanical inventions in textile industry
e.g.  
 the spinning-jenny, patented by Hargreaves in 1770
 the water-frame, invented by Arkwright 1769
 Crompton's mule introduced in 1779
 the self-acting mule first invented by Kelly in 1792
 
2) mechanical revolution in iron industry
e.g.  
 smelting by pit-coal
 
3) improved means of communication
e.g.  
Turnpike road
 The canal system (for example In 1777 the Grand Trunk
railroad
 
results:   

1) .. extraordinary increase in commerce
2) substitution of factory system for domestic system.      

• (par. 8) Revolution in distribution of wealth:
rise in rents caused by
1)money invested in improvements
2)enclosure system
3)consolidation of farms
4) high price of corn
social changes in country life:
• (par. 9) Social changes in manufacturing world: The farmers shared in the prosperity of the landlords; for many of them held their farms under
beneficial leases, and made large profits by them.
consequences:
1) they ceased to work and live with their labourers
2) they became a distinct class
3) class conflict.
• (par. 10) Misery of working people often caused by:
 
1)fall in wages
2)the rise of prices
3)those sudden fluctuations of trade
 
Conclusion:
The effects of the Industrial Revolution prove that free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being. We all know the horrors that ensued in England before it was restrained by legislation and combination.