Industrial Revolution in Europe

The Industrial Revolution was a period in history marked by major changes in production methods, labor relations, agriculture, technology, and transportation. The precise time period it refers to varies among historians, but they generally agree that it started between 1750 and 1780 in England and ended around 1850. Some historians point to another series of changes in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century as the second Industrial Revolution. The transformations brought about by the Industrial Revolution were profound and enduring. Among them were the division of labor, economic growth, urbanization, large-scale transportation networks, and pollution. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, labor was primarily artisanal; for example, one potter would do most or all things necessary to make a ceramic pot. During the Industrial Revolution, labor became divided into steps, with different people responsible for each step. In the case of pottery, a group of people would shape the pots, another group would bake them, another would paint them, another would do the final decorations. This increased production and maximized profits.

Background

In Great Britain, the enclosure movement concentrated land ownership into a few hands. Previously, a village would have a "commons," or land that all villagers could use to produce food or other crops. The enclosure movement changed social relations because people who previously had had the option for self-sufficiency now had to sell their labor to owners in a wage relationship. Crop rotation improved the efficiency of agriculture and enabled livestock to survive through the winter, allowing for larger herds. Horses were harnessed for the purposes of production, an improvement over oxen. Breeding techniques also improved the hardiness of the livestock. These changes had the overall effect of producing enough food to sustain larger populations. As opportunities in rural areas dwindled because of the enclosure movement, people moved to towns and cities.

Colonialism made a greater variety and quantity of raw materials available to manufacturing. Cotton grown on plantations in North America or Africa became available in Europe in addition to wool produced locally. From 1807, Napoleon’s domination of the European continent resulted in an economic blockade of Great Britain. Timber from Canada took up the slack to supply their building boom. The introduction of machinery in the textile industry, such as the spinning jenny and the water frame, enhanced the efficiency of wool and cotton spinning. The jenny made its way into France and Holland in 1799.

In France, the first sewing machine was invented by Barthelmy Thimmonier in 1830. The machinery for industry was in part enabled by advances in steel manufacture, although it was more readily available in Prussia (Germany) than in France. New territory acquired by Prussia turned out to have vast coal deposits, which powered industrialization there. Since people increasingly moved into cities, the available labor pool increased, causing a boom in production. Colonialism also opened up markets for exporting goods.

Vital to the changes of the Industrial Revolution was the invention of the steam engine by James Watt (1736–1819). This came to be seen as a general purpose technology, one whose applications in multiple industries made its impact immense. The steam engine powered industrial machinery, ships, and trains. While the former application increased production, the use of the steam engine in transportation quickened the pace of the distribution sector of the economy, and thereby it expanded the market reach and scope of manufacturing companies. The construction of a network of canals in this era also accelerated the movement of goods and people.

Impact

Economists have cited the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain as the beginning of consistent growth in key economic measures such as gross domestic product and income per person. Although one might expect companies that adopted innovative technologies to make the greatest profits, this was not always the case. Some have explained this in terms of surplus goods driving prices down. Improvements in production and distribution were accompanied by changes in the circulation sector of the economy as well. Companies needed not only short-term capital with which to buy raw materials and pay wages but also long term-capital in order to maintain equipment and expand operations. Many of them mortgaged their buildings and machinery, while others founded their own banks because the Bank of England in London did not service the emerging industrial centers of Birmingham and Manchester, called the "black country" because of the sooty and smoggy conditions caused by increased coal consumption. Because industrial equipment required a large investment, often far beyond accumulated profits, companies could trade their shares on the newly opened stock market in Brussels to raise capital.

What economist historians often neglect, however, is the cost of the Industrial Revolution in human terms. Working conditions were often dangerous, and there was weak regulation of the employer–employee relationship. Work days were brutally long, women and children worked in filthy conditions, and any disobedience could result in a flogging. Furthermore, the scale of some manufacturing operations was driving many artisans out of business. A class struggle developed between workers and owners. The Chartist movement, the ancestor of modern unions, demanded shorter work days, better conditions, and more humane treatment of laborers. The pressure they put on employers and the government through strikes and other actions resulted in improved conditions.

These social changes were associated with political change as well. Parliament steadily became more powerful and more politically effective than monarchs. A political literary culture emerged in coffeehouses, where people gathered to discuss the issues of the day over coffee and early newspapers. Once people knew and understood the stakes of politics, they wanted to participate. This was the inauguration of the democratic impulse, the era of the American Revolution and French Revolution. After the invention of the steam-powered printing press, the circulation of newspapers and literature skyrocketed, and literacy spread like wildfire.

The invention and development of the electric dynamo became the crucial innovation powering the second Industrial Revolution in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, alongside innovations such as the telegraph, the assembly line, the automobile, and the airplane. The telegraph in particular enabled communication across vast distances almost instantaneously, which allowed companies to coordinate their activities and interactions with ever-growing markets.

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