The British Industrial Revolution

The British Industrial Revolution

As we all know, Industrial Revolution, which played a very important role in the world, especially in the 18th-19th Century, first started in Britain. It’s not a coincidence. Britain had several conditions, which no longer country could match.

First, Britain’s population grew fast in the second half of the 18th century and people were skilled in many different crafts and trades. This helped to increase labor supply and consumer demand. Second, Britain had a lot of and enough to start Industrial Revolution money that earned by its foreign trades, slave trades and Enclosure Movement. Third, the most important, the British Bourgeois Revolution had been successfully. The British Feudal Class gave way to Bourgeois who had enough political and economic power to develop Bourgeois economy. These prerequisites made Britain become the first country in the world to start Industry Revolution.

Kay’s flying Shuttle, Hargreaves’s spinning jenny, Arkwright’s water frame, these were famous inventions in 18th-19th century even in the modern society. Which also decided the British Industrial Revolution first began in the textile industry. Most important of all, in 1769 James Watt patented an adoption of his steam engine to be the machine used in it. The improvements of tools and methods caused immerse expansion in manufacture and speed up of transportation. Generally speaking, agricultural and homebased trades and industries gave way to factorybased industries with complex machinery. We called these great changes to be Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution was not only a technological revolution but also a great social upheaval. It exerted a great influence on both British society and the world. First, it helped the British Bourgeois to fasten their rule and the other countries Bourgeois to establish their rule. Second, it promoted the development of production and laid a good foundation for the “factory of the world”. Third, it gave birth to new social-economic class, the proletariat. On the contrary, a factory system was established. Workers were employed and managers became capitalists. Two conflicting classes were born.

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My comments on the British Industrial Revolution