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History of the Industrial Revolution

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. In the latter part of the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth the economic life of England underwent a great transformation, which has aptly been called the Industrial Revolution. As late as 1760 the "open-field" system (q.v.) was the prevailing characteristic of British agriculture. Even in 1794, when the process of inclosing the commons and open fields had been progressing rapidly for a quarter of a century, out of 8500 parishes in England 4500 were still farmed in common. Great stretches of country lay quite unimproved; extensive bogs and heaths were found in all parts of the island. In many counties the miserable crops merely afforded sustenance to the agricultural population. The means of transportation were so defective that in one county surplus produce went to waste, while in an adjoining county scarcity prices prevailed. Industry was carried on by the domestic system, under which the manufacturer or merchant put out his materials to be worked up In the laborers' homes at piece wages. Exchange was still carried on largely by means of weekly markets, annual fairs, and through itinerant traders. British foreign trade was, however, increasing rapidly, and with the increased demand for goods prices of manufactures rose, affording the means of supporting a larger industrial population. The increased need for food rendered systematic agriculture more profitable, and the development of capital diverted much wealth to husbandry. A number of wealthy gentlemen turned their attention to the improvement of stock and the proper treatment of the soil (see AGRICULTURE) and demonstrated that agriculture could furnish returns rivaling those of trade, with the result that methods of agriculture were revolutionized. The continental wars enhanced the prices of agricultural produce and gave a great impetus to the adoption of the new methods. Between 1760 and 1843 nearly 7,000,000 acres of land were inclosed and put to intensive tillage.

At the same time the domestic system in industry was giving way to the factory system, as a result of the great mechanical inventions. In 1770 Hargreaves patented the spinning jenny; the water frame was invented by Arkwright in 1771; Crompton's mule was introduced in 1779. In 1769 Watt obtained his first patent for an improvement in the steam engine, and in 1785 it was successfully applied to the cotton manufacture. The effect of these inventions was enormously to increase output, the cotton manufacture trebling from 1788 to 1802. The iron industry, which had hitherto been relatively insignificant and was dwindling to still greater insignificance with the destruction of the woods, was revived by the employment of pit coal in smelting, rendered possible by the application of the steam engine to furnish power for the blast. The adoption in the woolen industry of the improvements in cotton manufacture extended the now system greatly. As a result of all these changes, English commerce, foreign and domestic, developed rapidly; shipping increased, good roads were built, and an era of canal building set in. Industry shifted from the rural towns to the large cities of the north of England, where labor was concentrated in factories, with the effect of improving the organization of labor and of making practicable numberless subsidiary labor-saving devices. Immense fortunes were made by those who were able to make use of the improved methods; population grew rapidly with the increased chances of employment. From 1791 to 1821 the population of England increased 43 per cent.

The period was, however, marked by a great deal of hardship to the working classes. The open-field farmers, displaced by inclosures, flocked to the cities and helped to reduce wages at times to a starvation level. The introduction of machinery deprived the hand workers of their means of livelihood; the crowding together of population in the large cities resulted in untold evils, moral and physical; the new life in the factory was not yet subjected to the regulations afterward found to be imperatively necessary. The employment in factories of women and children, with all its attendant evils, became common in all the manufacturing towns. The general effect of the revolution, however, was to give England a century's start over her rivals in the competitive race. The foundations for the prosperity of England today were laid by the thorough change in industry.

The rapid transformation from a low order of industrial organization to a higher order, that characterized the English Industrial Revolution, made its appearance at a later period in other modern states. In the United States this transformation did not begin until near the close of the first half of the nineteenth century; its full effects were not in evidence until the second decade after the Civil War. In Germany the changes corresponding with those of the British Industrial Revolution took place after the formation of the Empire. In Russia and Japan similar changes occurred towards the close of the nineteenth century. In the case of England the necessity of waiting upon the progress of invention prolonged the period of change. Other countries were able to introduce technical processes already tried out in England and hence became industrialized in a relatively brief time. In every country the process has been accompanied by a rapid congregation of population in cities, with resultant moral and political problems; exploitation of the labor of women and children, finally requiring legislative intervention; and the development of an organized labor. Consult: Held, Zwei Bücher zur socialen Geschichte Englands (Leipzig, 1881); Gibbins, Industry in England (New York, 1897); Warner, Landmarks in English Industrial History (London, 1899); Cheyney, Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England (New York, 1901); Toynbee, Industrial Revolution (6th ed., London, 1902); Cunningham, Industrial Revolution (Cambridge, 1908).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 149-150.