An insightful view of Industrial Revolution.
Author- Aditya Shrivastava
There were many causes of Industrial Revolution which belonged to several fields viz: Scientific, Banking, socio-political etc.
So, let’s begin the journey to understand the causes of Industrial Revolution in a chronological fashion.
At the dawn of the eighteenth century, farming was the primary livelihood in England, with at least 75% population making its living from farming.
Most of the families had very little to do in winter months. The cottage industry took advantage of the farmer’s free time and use it to produce quality textiles for a reasonable price.
During those days Britisher’s major export was Wool, the exporters of wools themselves were its manufacturer’s as well, therefore naturally it was not an efficient process.
So they outsourced their job to these villagers who were anyway free during winters, hence this outsourced job came as a bonus for them.
(This is considered as the first example of outsourcing in the history.)
They were asked to make cloth from it. Girls and Women first washed the wool to remove dirt and natural oils and then dyed it as required. Next, the wool was spun into thread using a spinning wheel. The actual weaving of the thread into cloth was done using a loom operated by hand and foot; it was physically demanding work.
The merchant would return at regular intervals over the season to pick up finished goods, which he brought back to the city for selling and exporting.
The cottage industry proved to be profitable for the urban merchants since they could sell the finished product for far more than they paid to the farmers.
This increased the English economy through the trade which occurred as the country became well-known overseas for its high quality and low-cost exports.
This was the foundation story which explains the causes of Industrial Revolution.
Let’s dig deeper now.
In the next 80–100 years important inventions like Seed drill and Horse hoe by Jethro Tull took place.
Farmers had discovered a crop rotation system that allowed them to forgo leaving up to half the land unused or fallow between each planting.
Inventions and discoveries like this gave rise to Agriculture Revolution which increased the agricultural output of English by three and a half times.
Agricultural Revolution compelled the villagers to move to the city as few numbers of people were enough to produce large production.
It is this large available workforce that allowed for the greater production needed to spark the Industrial Revolution.
England faced increasing pressure to produce more manufactured goods due to the 18th-century population explosion.
Now let’s talk about discoveries and inventions that took place during this time and help Industrial Revolution grow fast and more.
By 1812, the cost of making cotton yarn had dropped by 9/10th and the number of workers needed to turn wool into yarn had been reduced by 4/5th. The addition of these inventions to the workforce moved the stress from the production to the supply of raw cotton.
The demand for cotton grew with a change in the upper-class fashion, and Britain started to allow more cotton production. Soon the demand could not be satisfied with raw materials residing in Britain only.
Britain took advantage of America’s available new cotton, using it to help absorb the demand. By 1830, the importation of raw cotton had increased to eight times its past rate and half of Britain’s export were refined cotton.
Such an expansion had led to new ‘private banking”, a new money economy, and trading organizations. Modern credit facilities also appeared, such as state bank and other new media of exchange. This created economic stimulus which in turn gave the people more money to spend and invest.
So Agricultural revolution increased the agro production to multi folds reducing the labor, leaving 75% of the population who were farmers jobless. These jobless farmers flooded into the city and turned into a human resource and became fuel for Industrial Revolution. Later on, technological innovations and inventions increased the production, and made logistic and transportation cheaper, which led to increasing in trade. Increase in trade again encouraged people involved in the revolution to work harder. This is the story of Industrial Revolution which explains its causes.
Hope it was helpful.
Bookmark our blog for more exciting articles on infotainment.
Thanks.
Credit: www.pteducation.com
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There were many causes of Industrial Revolution which belonged to several fields viz: Scientific, Banking, socio-political etc.
So, let’s begin the journey to understand the causes of Industrial Revolution in a chronological fashion.
At the dawn of the eighteenth century, farming was the primary livelihood in England, with at least 75% population making its living from farming.
Most of the families had very little to do in winter months. The cottage industry took advantage of the farmer’s free time and use it to produce quality textiles for a reasonable price.
During those days Britisher’s major export was Wool, the exporters of wools themselves were its manufacturer’s as well, therefore naturally it was not an efficient process.
So they outsourced their job to these villagers who were anyway free during winters, hence this outsourced job came as a bonus for them.
(This is considered as the first example of outsourcing in the history.)
They were asked to make cloth from it. Girls and Women first washed the wool to remove dirt and natural oils and then dyed it as required. Next, the wool was spun into thread using a spinning wheel. The actual weaving of the thread into cloth was done using a loom operated by hand and foot; it was physically demanding work.
The merchant would return at regular intervals over the season to pick up finished goods, which he brought back to the city for selling and exporting.
The cottage industry proved to be profitable for the urban merchants since they could sell the finished product for far more than they paid to the farmers.
This increased the English economy through the trade which occurred as the country became well-known overseas for its high quality and low-cost exports.
This was the foundation story which explains the causes of Industrial Revolution.
Let’s dig deeper now.
In the next 80–100 years important inventions like Seed drill and Horse hoe by Jethro Tull took place.
Farmers had discovered a crop rotation system that allowed them to forgo leaving up to half the land unused or fallow between each planting.
Inventions and discoveries like this gave rise to Agriculture Revolution which increased the agricultural output of English by three and a half times.
Agricultural Revolution compelled the villagers to move to the city as few numbers of people were enough to produce large production.
It is this large available workforce that allowed for the greater production needed to spark the Industrial Revolution.
England faced increasing pressure to produce more manufactured goods due to the 18th-century population explosion.
Now let’s talk about discoveries and inventions that took place during this time and help Industrial Revolution grow fast and more.
- 1774, James Hargreaves’ invention of “Spinning Jenny”, a device which allowed one person to spin many threads at once, further increasing the amount of finished cotton that a worker could produce.
- 1774, Richard Arkwright created the “Water frame” to produce yarn faster. Because he used water as a source of power for wheel hence the name “Water frame”.
- 1779, Samuel Crompton combined both the Spinning jenny and Water frame to create a machine called “Crompton’s mule”, which produced large amounts of fine, strong yarn.
- 1782- In this year James Watt developed a rotary engine that could turn a shaft and drive machinery to power the machines to spin and weave cotton cloth.
credit- Wikimedia - Because his machine used coal and not water, therefore, spinning factories could be located virtually anywhere.
- 1807, Robert Fulton used steam power to create the first steamboat, this changed the way and the speed in which materials could be moved between the colonies of Britain.
- 1814, Stephenson used the steam engine to create a steam-powered train, which would eventually allow the increased communication and trade between places. Britain encouraged the building of railroads in other European countries and their colonies. It became a standard item of British export.
Picture credit: Flickr.com
By 1812, the cost of making cotton yarn had dropped by 9/10th and the number of workers needed to turn wool into yarn had been reduced by 4/5th. The addition of these inventions to the workforce moved the stress from the production to the supply of raw cotton.
The demand for cotton grew with a change in the upper-class fashion, and Britain started to allow more cotton production. Soon the demand could not be satisfied with raw materials residing in Britain only.
Britain took advantage of America’s available new cotton, using it to help absorb the demand. By 1830, the importation of raw cotton had increased to eight times its past rate and half of Britain’s export were refined cotton.
Such an expansion had led to new ‘private banking”, a new money economy, and trading organizations. Modern credit facilities also appeared, such as state bank and other new media of exchange. This created economic stimulus which in turn gave the people more money to spend and invest.
So Agricultural revolution increased the agro production to multi folds reducing the labor, leaving 75% of the population who were farmers jobless. These jobless farmers flooded into the city and turned into a human resource and became fuel for Industrial Revolution. Later on, technological innovations and inventions increased the production, and made logistic and transportation cheaper, which led to increasing in trade. Increase in trade again encouraged people involved in the revolution to work harder. This is the story of Industrial Revolution which explains its causes.
Hope it was helpful.
Bookmark our blog for more exciting articles on infotainment.
Thanks.
Credit: www.pteducation.com
historytv.com
Follow me on Quora.
Thanks.
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