In the present text I am going to reassume Arnold Toynbee’s The Chief Features Of The Industrial Revolution discussed during the previous lesson.

Starting from the title, the reader cannot but-notice there are two key words: “chief” and “the Industrial Revolution”, which are functional to introduce to the main topic. The word Revolution is the main clue to understand what the text is about. It is composed of two parts: RE- and -VOLUTION and it refers to a period of change of the previous system, the Industrial one. In goes without saying that the Revolution needs prerequisites to be effective. For this reason, the reader might suppose the text analyses the causes, the consequences and the main facts of the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution is an historical process which brought about radical changes in nineteenth century England and in the western world letting to the substitution of competition for the medieval regulation. The pre-revolution world’s economy was autarchic that is based on the self-production and on the absence of market rules. The main products were agricultural and ship building. The revolution has converted the agrarian country into an industrial one, producing competition for similar products given by the market law of the supply and demand. The system made of competitive prices, of few capitalists and of many workers, has produced in short time a difference in the distribution of wealth.

The change was caused by the Scientific Revolution’s technical innovations – for instance the improvement of the breed cattle, the steam-plough’s invention and the agricultural societies’ institution based on the exchange of shared agricultural advances – and the new scientific discoveries – such as the rotation of crops –, which increased earnings and agricultural production without the need for a large number of laborers. Although the increase in available food led to the growth of population, the new system has also led to the decline of the agricultural population. The fencing of the common-fields (the enclosure), led to the unemployment of laborers, who were forced to look for work in the cities.

The economic migration is known as urbanization. The migratory flows were mainly direct to cities in the north, such as Manchester, where the major textile industries and iron industries were located. The growth of industries was linked to mechanical inventions that improved textile production – the spinning-jenny panted by Hargreaves in 1770, the water-frame invented by Arkwright in 1669, the Crompton’s mule introduced in 1779 and the self-acting mule invented by Kelly in 1792 as well as the two most significant inventions: the stream engine and the power-loom – and in the iron production – the invention of smelting by pit-coal (1740-1750) and the application of the steam-engine to blast furnaces (1788) which led to the invention of the chain reaction. The proximity to coal mines and waterways was indispensable for the survival of industries. The first was essential to make the machines of the factory work, while the second was relevant to guarantee a large-scale distribution of the products, with an additional price. The transport of goods was also improved with other means of communication: the canal’s system, the improvement of roads and the first railroad. The competition of industries which produced similar productswas based on the search for raw materials at the lowest price, especially in the colonies. Their exploitation was often falsely reported as a burden that the white man had in order to bring civilization to the natives (Kipling’s The White Man’s Burden).

In the industry, workers were exploited and forced to exhausting work rhythms with a minimum wage. It goes without saying that the workers' demonstrations began very early, in contemporary to their acquisition of class awareness. Without their work, the capitalist would not have any profit. Therefore, the workers have a value named surplus value. In this period, the first unions were born, legalized only in 1900.

All of the above led to the growth of two systems of thought that relate the components of the productive life: the Economic science, or economic liberalism, and the Socialism. The first one implies that the State does not interfere with the economic policy, leaving the market itself to decide the product’s price. On the other hand, the second one is closely linked to the workers’ acquisition of class awareness. The change of mentality has four chief landmarks connected with four English economists: Adam Smith’s Wealth Of Nations (1776) which deals with the ways to product wealth, Malthus’ Essay On Population (1798), a research on the causes and the consequences of the growth of population, such as poverty, Ricardo’s Principles Of Political Economy And Taxation (1817)which deals with the principles of economic policy connected to the production system and John Stuart Mill’s Principles Of Political Economy (1848).