The Industrial Revolution 1750 - 1850 Flashcards
** The Industrial Revolution 1750 - 1850 **
What was the causes of the Industrial Revolution?
Many different causes of the Industrial Revolution
Many historians argue that it is due to a buildup of different influences, rather than a singular thing
Impossible to date the start or end of the IR
Boundaries of 1750 – 1850 are useful, as a lot changed during this time
** The Agricultural Revolution **
What did the spread of information do?
Improvements in conditions were restricted to local areas due to a lack of communication
Most important factor was the spread of knowledge around England
Spread of information can be credited to: Arthur Young, William Marshall and Thomas Coke
Information made farmers everywhere familiar with drainage, marling, hoeing and crop rotation
** The Agricultural Revolution **
How did farmers farm pre AR
Most farmers were subsistence farmers in 1750, rather than commercial farmers
Improvements in conditions were restricted to local areas due to a lack of communication
** The Agricultural Revolution **
How did population affect the AR
Rising population, from 1700s was a higher demand for food
Debated whether the rise in population was due to a fall in death rates or a rise in birth rate
** The Agricultural Revolution **
How did Parliament affect farming
Notable feature: 1750 enclosure of land began
Parliament enacted over 4000 acts of enclosure in the 100 years after 1750
Meant most villagers lost the right to graze their animals on common land
** The Agricultural Revolution **
How did the agricultural revolution support the Industrial Revolution
Growing urban population could be fed
No shortage of food which allowed for society to be stable
Landowners made profit and this was invested in industrial growth
Agricultural workers provided a necessary market for goods made in towns/cities
** Development of Capitalism: Investment, trade and commerce **
How did Capitalism drive the IR
Industrial growth from 1750 – 1850 would not have been possible without capitalism
Capitalism was essential for investment in technology
Start of 1750, this was easy as machinery/workshops were cheap to start
Most of cost went to the purchase of raw materials
1820, GDP invested was 11% in industry
Many people borrowed money from friends and family to invest (normally at a rate of 5%)
As firms got larger, joint stock companies started to emerge. Normally owned by shareholders who were liable for the debts they had invested
They were ablet o reduce the risk due to limited liabilities – which made people more likely to invest
If the company went under, people did not have to pay back their debts
** Development of Capitalism: Investment, trade and commerce **
** Trade and Commerce **
What was the benefit of overseas trade
Overseas trade allowed raw materials (like cotton) to come to Britain
Industries were then incentivized to make finished products as they could sell these overseas
Overseas trades led to ports and merchant fleets being developed
Overseas trade also meant financial systems had to develop to provide credit and insurance
** Development of Capitalism: Investment, trade and commerce **
** Trade and Commerce **
What was the benefit of domestic trade.
Domestic trade was even more important
Many marketing methods still used today were developed at this time – such as advertisements, special offers, sales etc.
There was growing consumption of domestic goods at home
This helped to display social ran and class – done in a way to imitate the social class above
British Magazine 1763: ‘The present rage of imitating the manners of high life has spread so far among the gentle folks of lower life that in a few years we shall probably have no common folk at all.’
Cheap food meant people had more money to spend on trivial things
The occurrence of a consumer boom during this time is debated
** Early mechanization: Steam Engines and Spinning Wheels **
What source of power were available for early machinery
Two forms of power for early machinery was steam and power
1820’s water was used as main source of power – used primarily to produce cotton yarn
Steam allowed for larger and powerful machines to be used
Steam power was used initially to drain mines
** Early mechanization: Steam Engines and Spinning Wheels **
What did James Watt and Mattew Boulton do?
James Watt and Mattew Boulton made a partnership in the later 18th Century – to develop a steam engine which was small and needed less fuel. Released in 1781.
The new engine was rotary rather than up and down motion – generating more power for less cost
Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the English manufacturer Matthew Boulton and the Scottish engineer James Watt, the firm had a major role in the Industrial Revolution and grew to be a major producer of steam engines in the 19th century
** Early mechanization: Steam Engines and Spinning Wheels **
What did the use of Steam power and mechanisation do for factories and farming?
Larger machines could be developed with steam power and bigger (modern) factories were needed to house them
Bigger factories increased productivity and transformed how people did their work
19th century, steam plows and threshing machines were developed and also increased the productivity of food
Mechanization increased production, but forced many people who worked on the land out of work
** Early mechanization: Steam Engines and Spinning Wheels **
How did Steam change railways and shipping?
Steam allowed for railways to be built and these could move goods quickly across the country
Steam ships replaced wind powered ships by the end of the 18th century
** Early mechanization: Steam Engines and Spinning Wheels **
What industry experienced the greatest developments during the IR and how?
Greatest developments occurred in the textile industry
List of inventions:
John Kays Flying Shuttle 1733: sped up the weaving process by automatically moving the shuttle. Weavers resisted the development and luddites attacked Kays home.
James Hargreaves Spinning Jenny 1764: Increased the number of threads produced to make cotton
Richard Arkwright Water Frame 1769: Allowed for stronger thread to be made and cloth to be made from cotton. It was big and needed big factories to house it
Samuel Compton Spinning Mule 1779: Produced a fine quality strong thread. Compton didn’t apply for a patent and it was copied
Edmund Cartwrights Power Loom 1785: Power driven weaving loom
Resistance from hand loom weavers, this is where mechanization was first seen in spinning
1820 Steam powered weavers became popular
** Early mechanization: Steam Engines and Spinning Wheels **
What was the impact of mechanisation to the
Resistance from hand loom weavers, this is where mechanization was first seen in spinning
Weavers resisted the development and luddites attacked John Kays home (inventor of the Flying Shuttle 1733).
** Early mechanization: Steam Engines and Spinning Wheels **
who was Freidenrich Engels and what did he do
wrote ‘The Condition of the Working Class of England’ 1844 said that ‘these inventions gave rise to an IR which altered the whole of civil society, the historical importance of which is only now being recognized’
was a german philosopher, whose father was an owner of large textile factories in Salford (Greater Manchester, England) and Barmen, Prussia
Engels’ interpretation proved to be extremely influential with British historians of the Industrial Revolution. He focused on both the workers’ wages and their living conditions. He argued that the industrial workers had lower incomes than their pre-industrial peers and they lived in more unhealthy and unpleasant environments.
***Early Developments in Transport, Canals and Roads **
what issues faced transport pre IR
Preindustrial transport relied on horses, roads, rivers and sea
Roads were in poor condition as the local communities had to maintain them and they produced little reward
***Early Developments in Transport, Canals and Roads **
How did roads develop during the IR?
Sea travel was good at delivering coal, it was limited in its use for trade as most industrial cities were not by the sea
Private and turnpike roads began to be built that carried a toll – these were better constructed and maintained, but they could not carry as much as ships
***Early Developments in Transport, Canals and Roads **
What part did Canals play in the IR?
Rivers were better than horses as they could carry more, but they were slow and depth differed depending on season
1760-1840 4000 miles of canals were built to solve this problem
Canal routes were designed to improve trade internally and externally
Major coal fields could be linked to ports via the canals
1761 Bridgewater Canal connected Manchester with the coal fields at Worlsey was the start of the canal age. This development halved the price of coal
Investors could see that canals were worth their cash – so they invested their money
1770’s - 1790’s there was canal mania (large canal building projects)
1 barge could carry 50 tons of coal – so they revolutionized this industry
Canals help landlocked areas – who could import and export more efficiently
***Early Developments in Transport, Canals and Roads **
Who benefited and who didn’t
Everyone (industrial and domestic) benefitted from this arrangement and it lead to more stream power being used
Hand loom weavers and spinners suffered and many lost jobs due to this development
