INTRODUCTION:
At the beginning of
the 18th century England was still chiefly an agricultural country.
The cities except London were small. Great changes were to take place in the
eighteenth and nineteenth century. Right from the middle of the eighteenth
century human power was being fast supplemented by machine power in the process
of manufacture the domestic system was giving way to the factory system and a
substantial part of the population had already congregated in towns and cities
to devote itself purely to industrial work.
INVENTION OF MACHINARY:
The heart of
industrial revolution was the invention of machinery and the application to the
process of manufacture. Machine took the lead in this respect. In the
manufacture of cotton goods the first advance was made when Kay’s flying
shuttle, patented in 1733, came into use. It enabled the weaver not only to
weave wider cloth but also to double his output. The flying shuttle came into
use into the cotton weaving factories about 1760 and caused a scarcity of
yarns. In 1765 Hargreaves improved the method of spinning yarns by constructing
the spinning jenny.
ROLE OF COAL AND IRON:
The basis of the
mechanization of the industry were coal and iron. At the opening of the 18th
century coal mining was already on important industry in England. Benjamin
huntsman had invented method of rolling iron into bars by means of rollers
instead of hammering it. A sufficient supply of good iron could now be obtained
which could be put to many uses and inventors were not, slow in finding new
uses for it. The first cast iron bridge was built across the Severn in 1779 and
the first iron ship in 1790 was launched.
RISE OF FACTORY SYSTEM
The direct result of the application of machinery to the process of
manufacture was the rise of factory system. Production had become sufficiently
large – scale and it was rather difficulty to allow it to be carried on by
individual workers.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The industrial revolution transformed the English social and economic
structure to a very great extent.
EMPHASIS FROM AGRICULTURE TO INDUSTRY
New industries sprang up offering new goods to satisfy man’s desires.
Thus there was an enormous increase in individual and national wealth.
RISE OF THE FACTORY SYSTEM
The old domestic system was replaced by the new factory system which
produced goods on a very large scale. This was inevitable because the domestic
system could not compete with the new factory system.
INCREASE IN WEALTH AND RISE OF CAPITALISM
Large-scale production resulted in greater profits to the owners. It
also resulted in competition between the producers. Thus a small class of
capitalists grew up which dominated the economic life of England.
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