Thursday, 30 October 14

The Chief Features of the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution' refers to a period of massive economic, technological, social and cultural change.

It is a process that substitution the medieval regulations.

The market is regulated by the interchange between demand and offer. The period, when started the industrial revolution, is the end of 17^th century.

Causes of the Industrial Revolution:

• The end of feudalism changes economic relationships.
• Colonial trade networks.
• The presence of all the required resources close together.

What Changed – Industrially and Economically:

• The invention of steam power, which was used to power factories and transport and allowed for deeper mining.
• Creation of new and quicker transport networks thanks to first canals and then railways.
• The banking industry developed to meet the needs of entrepreneurs.

What Changed – Socially and Culturally:

• New city and factory cultures affecting family and peer groups.
• Rapid urbanization leading to dense, cramped housing and living conditions.
• Debates and laws regarding child labour, public health and working conditions.

The development of Economic Science in England has four chief landmarks, each connected with the name of one of the four great English economists.

-       Adam Smith who wrote Wealth of Nations in 1776.

He investigated the causes of wealth and aimed at the substitution of industrial freedom for a system of restrinction.

-       Malthus who wrote Essay on Population, 1798, in which he found a theory of population.

-       Ricardo who wrote Principles of Political Economy 1817 and Taxation, in which he sought to ascertain the laws of the distribution of wealth.

-       John Stuart Mill who wrote Principles of Political Economy 1848. He asserted that "the chief merit of his treatise" was the distinction drawn between the laws of production and those of distribution, and the problem he tried to solve was, how wealth ought to be distributed.