|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Economic,
political and cultural factors combine to promote industrialisation
By
the later eighteenth century, the British economy was well placed to experience
a major economic and structural transformation as the pioneer industrialising
nation. Foreign traders secured rapidly expanding overseas markets for her
manufactures. The home market was buoyant because of population growth, high
levels of urbanisation, the expansion of wage earning and rising incomes of
the middle classes in particular. The stimulus of demand led to a search for
more efficient ways of producing goods with technological and organisational
innovations. Agriculture was expanding and changing so that the growing population
could be fed without commensurate increase in the
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Image
awaiting copyright) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Penry
Williams, South Wales Industrial Landscape c. 1825.
Source: Peter Lord, The Visual Culture of Wales: Industrial
Society
|
|
|
|
|
|
agricultural workforce. The country also had a stable political regime established
after the restoration of a limited monarchy in the later seventeenth century.
This stability was very important in encouraging enterprise and risk taking
whilst legal and financial institutions were in place which protected property
and encouraged investment. Compared with the European continent, Britain also
had relatively light taxation, which impinged mainly on consumers (via taxes
on goods) rather than on business and enterprise.
Finally, the country had dominant cultural and religious beliefs which stressed
hard work, respectability, thrift and industry. These had been encouraged by
the English reformation in the sixteenth century, a relatively tolerant attitude
to religious minorities from the late seventeenth century, and also by the growth
of vigorous non conformist groups in the eighteenth century.The number of Quakers,
Methodists and Unitarians among the most dynamic businessmen of the period was
more than proportional to their overall strength. Thus a mix of economic, political
and cultural factors which occurred together, underpinned British exceptionalism.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The
slow and patchy pace of change
However,
as we shall see, the economic and social changes of the industrial revolution
were more patchy and less complete than was once thought and than the
word 'revolution' might suggest. The growth of real
output, including industrial
output, remained slow (not reaching 3% per year until the
1830s) and national
income grew even more slowly. The productivity of labour, capital
and land (total
factor productivity), at national level, remained below 1% per annum
until after 1830. (Productivity refers to the value of outputs which are
produced by a given level of inputs). Many regions and sectors of the
economy changed very slowly and many historians argue that the transformation
of the period is better described as evolutionary rather than revolutionary.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Image
awaiting copyright) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Penry
Williams, Cyfarthfa Ironworks Interior at Night, 1825
Source: Peter Lord, The Visual Culture of Wales: Industrial
Society
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stress
upon the gradual nature of change during the industrial revolution was started
by Sir John Clapham who wrote a three volume Economic History of Modern Britain
(1926-38). He stressed that '…no single industry had passed through a complete
technological revolution before 1830. The country abounded with ancient types
of industrial organisation and transitional types of every variety'. The steam
engine was not generally introduced until after 1830 and typical firm size even
in the cotton and iron sectors was small. In recent years gradualism has become
the dominant interpretation emphasised by those such as N.
F. R. Crafts who have produced new (very low) growth rate figures and by
a multitude of researchers who have concentrated upon industrial and other changes
in the century or so before 1750. Crafts and Harley have gone so far as to suggest
that the revolutionising textile sector, particularly cotton, was responsible
for most of the productivity increases in the economy before 1850 and that the
sector floated in a sea of tradition until industrialisation began to occur
on a broader front after the 1840s. Certainly the origins of the industrial
revolution should be sought much earlier than the later eighteenth century and
industrialisation was only beginning to get into its stride by 1830. Being the
pioneer industrialiser probably slowed things down. Countries industrialising
later could avoid costly mistakes with inefficient new methods. It can also
be argued that Britain got locked into a pattern of growth and trade which relied
on shipping and overseas investment as much as modern industry and which proved
inflexible and problematic when her competitors challenged her industrial leadership
at the end of the nineteenth-century. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Britain
underwent the pain of structural change but without the reward of rapid income
growth… Technical change came slowly and patchily, with spectacular changes
in textiles disguising the backwardness of many other sectors. Thus although
an extraordinary proportion of workers entered industry, Britain did not get
as much for them as it should have done… Britain therefore emerged from the
industrial revolution only half-heartedly transformed. Once set on this path
and committed to the staple industries of cotton, coal, iron, and steel, it
found either an increase in speed or a change in direction difficult to achieve.
Britain sensibly pursued its comparative advantage in these industries and
in foreign investment, but became locked into them, unable to adapt to the
new demands of the world economy after the First World War.'
Roderick
Floud summarising Crafts' view of the industrial revolution in Times Literary
Supplement, 19 July 1985, p. 794 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|