The Chief Features of the Industrial Revolution

The historical process known as Industrial Revolution brought radical changes in nineteenth century in England an in the western world. 

The essence of the industrial revolution is the substitution of competition for the mediaeval regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of wealth. Economic Science and Socialism grew. In this development there are four chief landmarks.

The first is the publication of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations in 1776 in which he investigated the causes of wealth, not the welfare of man.

The second is Malthus' Essay on population, 1798, which deals with the causes of poverty.

The third is Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 1817, which deals with the laws of the distribution of wealth.

The fourth is John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy, 1848, which deals with the way wealth ought to be distributed under a system of free competition. We can see the Socialism influence.

Coming to the facts of the Industrial Revolution, the first thing is the rapidity which marks the growth of population. Next, we notice the positive decline in the agricultural population. The causes are: the destruction of the common-field system of cultivation; the enclosure of common and waste lands; and the consolidstion of small farms into large.

Passing to manufactures, four great inventions altered the character of the cotton manufacture; the spinning-jenny, the water-frame, the Crompton's mule and the self-acting mule. In 1769 James Watt took out his patent for the steam-engine. Sixteen years later it was applied to the cotton manufacture.

In fifteen years the cotton trade trbled itsself, it experienced its "golden age". The condition of the workman was very different.

There was also the growth of the factory system. The canal system was being rapidly developed throughout the country. For example, the Grand Junction canal made a water-way from London through Oxford to the chief midland towns. The improved means of communication caused an extraordinary increase in commerce. There was a great social revolution, a change in the balance of political power and in relative position of classes. The farmers shared in the prosperity of the landlords; they ceased to work and live with their labourers, and became a distinct class. They changed in their habits, the new food and furniture, the luxury and drinking, all consequences of more money coming into their hands. The new class of great capitalist employers made enormous fortunes, their hundred of workmen were individually unknown to them, so the old relations between masters and men disappeared. The effects of the Industrial Revolution prove that free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being.