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 the substitution of competition for the mediaeval regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of wealth.

It led to growth of two systems of thought:

1) Economic science                      2)Socialism

 • (par. 2-3) Facts of Industrial Revolution. 

• (par. 4) Decrease in rural population.

causes:     1) The destruction of the common-field system of cultivation; 

     2) The enclosure, on a large scale, of common and waste lands;

      3) The consolidation of small farms into large.

• (par. 5) Agricultural advance.

cause — more scientific approach:

e.g.  

• (par. 6-7) Growth of industry.

causes;

1) mechanical inventions in textile industry

e.g.  

most important:

2) mechanical revolution in iron industry

e.g.  

3) improved means of communication

e.g.  

results:   1)  Extraordinary increase of commerce

     2) Substitution of factory system for domestic system.

• (par. 8) Revolution in distribution of wealth:

rise in rents caused by

social changes in country life:

• (par. 9) Social changes in manufacturing world: The new class of great capitalist employers made enormous fortunes

consequences:

 1) The old relations between masters and men disappeared

2)  A "cash nexus" was substituted for the human tie

3) Class conflict.

• (par. 10) Misery of working people often caused by:

Conclusion: The effects of the Industrial Revolution prove that free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being.