Grade 8 History Notes INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN BRITAIN Economy Before the Industrial Revolution Farming was the primary livelihood in England, with at least 75% of the population making their living off the land The cottage (home) industry was developed to take advantage of the farmers' free time and use it to produce quality textiles for a reasonable price Manufacturing was often done in people’s homes and people used hand tools or basic machines. There was a limited power supply , so manufacturing processes did not happen in large workshops By 1914 the European economy was dominated by large factories , employing thousands of workers Slave Trade Sir John Hawkings was the first Englishman to trade Africans. The British slave trade became a major business in the 17th century, when King James 1 set up the first monopoly company to trade with Africa 1618. The demand for slaves to work the tobacco , rice ,sugar and other crops on plantations grew when Britain obtained colonies. The slave trade employed thousands of people in order to sustain a large support of shipping services, ports and finance companies The slave trade provided the British industries with raw materials which were turned into manufactured goods and then sold for large profits in Europe and in the colonies. Plantation-grown goods such as rum , tobacco ,coffee ,sugar ,molasses and cotton were bought from the profits of selling African slaves to the plantation owners and sold for a profit in Britain and Europe Plantation owners profited from the use of free slave labour . Wealth from the Slave Trade Merchants who sold slaves became the richest people in the 18th century Britain British profits were made from exporting manufactured goods to Africa and importing slave products such as sugar British capitalism was a cause of slave plantation development Slavery played an important role in the development of the modern world economy and provided the labour power necessary to settle and develop the New World Slaves were used for labour to produce the products like sugar , tobacco , coffee , cocoa and cotton British cotton mills depended on cheap self-produced cotton from New World British consumers also benefited from other cheap slave -produced goods like sugar The profits gained from the slave trade gave Britain economy an extra source of capital (money) Both the Americas and Africa , whose economies depended on slavery , became useful additional export markets for British manufacturers Many British individuals, business , and ports prospered on the basis of the slave trade Cottage Industry The term referred to people who worked from home like sewing , law-making, wall hangings, electronics etc Spinners , weavers and others remained living in small villages and worked according to their own preferences as independent contractors who owned their equipment Women and children earned cash and it converted what had been the family’s leisure time especially the slow phases of the agricultural cycle -into casj as well Before industrialisation, European manufacturers had a large consumer market available to them which provided small luxury goods