by Simeon Netchev
published on 23 February 2023

The British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) brought with it innovative mechanisation and deep social change. The industrial revolution saw many inventions of steam-powered machines used in factories. Although Agriculture remained important, it was cotton textiles that became Britain‘s top export.

Defining a ‘Revolution’

I wanted to find out how a revolution would be defined. It is thought that dating the exact beginning and end of the Industrial Revolution in Britain is problematic, this is because historians don’t all agree on the precise dates this is because the ‘revolution’ wasn’t a single dramatic event or even a series of them, it was more “a long and gradual process of mechanisation of industry and agriculture, which in turn caused a number of important and long-lasting social changes, chief amongst them being accelerated urbanisation across Britain.”

It is thought that the general agreed range is from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century, however it does miss important, and even more necessary developments beforehand (for example, the increased efficiency in agriculture) and the continuation of machine inventions (such as the telephone) afterwards.

The term ‘industrial revolution’, has been “coined by the historian Arnold Toynbee in 1884, is misleading since this process of change was neither quick nor driven by popular uprisings. In addition, the word ‘industrial’ denies the importance of significant changes in rural life through this period.”

What is to be more certain is “the imperfect label ‘Industrial Revolution’ does capture the idea that tremendous changes occurred so that the countryside, cities, and working life of the late 19th century would have seemed incredible to a visitor from the late 16th century. The author Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) noted that the steam-powered railways alone, probably the most visible element of the ‘revolution’ for most people, brought more change than any other development since the Norman conquest of England in 1066.”

It is interesting to note that the Industrial Revolution happened first in Britain, so when referring to that country alone, it is often called the First Industrial Revolution. Where this mechanisation and urbanisation spread to other countries, it is called the Second Industrial Revolution, for example, in France from 1830, Germany from 1850, and the United States from 1865.

Causes of the Industrial Revolution

There were a number of reasons that the Industrial Revolution began in Britain. The agricultural system was efficient and could feed “a booming population.”

Britain also had access to cheap fuel which was abundant, and by 1700, it had become skilled in mining coal, producing 80% of the coal in Europe. There was also another advantage that Britain was using coke as a fuel that made high-quality iron. Coke is produced by baking coal in a furnace to remove impurities.

The first blast furnace that employed coke was used in 1709, it was at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, a furnace works owned by Abraham Darby (1678-1717).

This meant that Britain, had both the material to make machines and the fuel to power these machines and this was before the Industrial Revolution properly began.

THE HIGH COST OF LABOUR MEANT THAT INVENTORS HAD A PROFIT MOTIVE TO DESIGN MACHINES THAT COULD REDUCE OR REPLACE HUMANS IN THE WORKPLACE.

Acquiring labour in the UK was reasonably expensive because of there was an expanding agricultural system, using more and more land that was enclosed (meaning land was requisitioned for farming from common land).

Farms had an increased need for labourers, but there few available due to urbanisation that was developing, leading to higher wages. This meant that the inventors would have “a profit motive to design machines that could reduce labour.”

The Capitalists were given conditions that were favourable “by governments to invest in these inventions and Britain’s trade empire, particularly that established by the East India Company, could be used to exploit such innovations by providing markets for manufactured goods.”

A trend for people leaving the countryside to find work in the ever popular factories, was exploited and accelerated by business owners, who were able to set up machine-based factories, in particular the textile mills. This would then mean that the “urbanisation ball was rolling at a certain pace, inventions accelerated the ‘revolution’ as more machines were invented to make even better machines, and so mechanisation surged on.”

The railways would continue this process and even more demand was created for coal, iron, and steel. This lead to the pace of urbanisation to increase further, enabling a new ‘middle-class consumer market’ to be created, and drove demand even further, where more innovation and more products were produced.

Watt & Boulton Steam Engine

The illustration above is the Watt & Boulton steam engine. This was “one of the key innovations of the Industrial Revolution.” The steam engine dates to 1788, and “is the oldest original rotative steam engine in the world.”

The steam engine was designed and built by James Watt (1736-1819) and Matthew Boulton (1728-1809). This steam engine used far less fuel than earlier models that were created by other inventors, this meant it could be used almost anywhere and powered factory and agricultural machines of all kinds.

Science Museum, London.

License & Copyright

Original image by Science Museum, London. Uploaded by Mark Cartwright, published on 20 March 2023. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

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Images

https://www.worldhistory.org/image/17099/the-first-industrial-revolution-c-1760—1840/

https://www.worldhistory.org/image/17206/watt–boulton-steam-engine/