The Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution is an historical process: it implies the substitution of competition for the mediaeval regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of wealth. It brought radical changes into England and in the western world.

It led to the growth of two systems of thought: Economic science and Socialism. The main landmarks of Economic science were four English economists: Adam Smith, Robert Malthus, David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill.

The main facts of the Industrial Revolution were: the growth of population and the decline in the agricultural population.

The main causes of the decrease in rural population were: the destruction of the common-field system of cultivation, the enclosure, on a large scale of common and waste lands, the consolidation of small farms into large ones. In addition , agricultural advance was due to different causes like: the breed of cattle, the rotation of crops and the steam plough, which all together brought  to the birth of agricultural society.

At the same time a growth of industry was recorded due to new mechanical inventions in the textile industry like: the spinning jenny, the water frame, Crompton’s mule and the self-acting mule. However the most important inventions were the steam engine and the power-loom. What’s more a mechanical revolution was recorded in the iron industry thanks to smelting by a pit coal and the steam-engine to blast furnaces. Last but not least the means of communication were improved thanks to the canal system, the roads and the railroad. The results of the growth were the extraordinary increase of commerce and the substitution of factory system for domestic system.

The revolution in distribution of wealth rise in rents was caused by: the rental of land, the enclosure system, the consolidation of farms and the high price of corn. These elements caused social changes in country life: a change in the balance of political power and in the relative position of classes. The farmer shared in the prosperity of the landlords; many of them held their farms under beneficial leases, and made large profits by them.

The new class of great capitalist employers made enormous fortunes, with 3 main consequences: the disappearance of the relations between masters and men, the substitution of a “cash nexus” for the human tie,  the class conflict.

The misery working people was often caused by: the conditions of labors under the factory system, the rise of prices and the fluctuations of trade.

In conclusion the effects of the Industrial Revolution prove that free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being.