PH_Intro

Introduction

Industry

Agriculture

Population

Appendices

Recommended Reading

The nature of the transformation

Population growth was sustained because the economy was expanding. Opportunities for paid work were increasing and the production and distribution of foodstuffs was slowly growing more responsive to the nation's needs. Very significant improvements in the organisation and technologies of production of manufactured goods and of foodstuffs and raw materials such as coal and iron ore resulted in important increases in productivity so that more could be produced by each worker. It was these changes in organisation and technology which underpinned the industrial revolution. The changes were dramatic but not evenly spread: some sectors such as cotton textiles witnessed revolutionary changes whilst others continued with more traditional methods. Some trades and regions went into decline whilst others flourished. Overall, however, by the second quarter of the nineteenth century, an industrial society had emerged. As E. A. Wrigley has argued (in Continuity, chance and change: the character of the industrial revolution

Cloth-Makers. Source: George Walker, The Costume of Yorkshire.

in England, Cambridge, 1988) this industrial society was different from what had gone before because it was based upon inorganic rather than organic sources of energy and raw materials, that is upon coal and iron rather than upon agricultural raw materials, water or muscle power. It was a society in which machinery and steam power were used as never before, where the bulk of the population lived and worked in towns and cities, and where the way of life of the mass of the population had been altered for ever.

Innovations and the expansion of the market for manufactured goods

Several industrial sectors, most notably textiles and iron-making adopted revolutionary new technologies of production which raised productivity and led to a marked lowering of prices. This encouraged people to buy more manufactured goods instead of making them for themselves. People were able to buy more because of the expansion of wage earning in the economy. In addition, new products and designs made manufactured goods attractive to a wider range of consumers. Modern marketing and sales techniques, such as newspaper advertising, travelling salesmen and growing numbers of retail shops further encouraged what some historians have termed 'a consumer revolution'. Increasing demand for goods, and the supply of more varied and cheaper products interacted to create a dynamic economic expansion.

Spinning Jenny. Source: Mary Evans Picture Library

Technological innovations, rising productivity and innovations in design and quality also made British manufactures cheaper and more attractive in export markets. British exports to Europe and the Americas rose dramatically and this in turn helped to pay for imports of food and raw materials that were vital to sustaining the industrial economy. Britain's dominant role in international trade at this time was boosted by state policy, war, and imperial expansion. The trade in slaves between West Africa and the Americas, which Britain dominated in the eighteenth century, played an important role in underpinning the growth of trans-Atlantic and other exchanges in which raw materials such as cotton, and increasingly popular groceries such as sugar, tobacco and coffee, were imported and manufactured goods were exported.