Britain and the Industrial Revolution 1700-1900
Define: Industrial Revolution
enclosure
Jethro Tull
Charles Townshend
industrialization
agricultural revolution
tenant farmer
seed drill
crop rotation
Robert Blackwell
factors of production
OVERVIEW Great Britain fueled an industrial revolution, which changed society in
the 1700s. This industrialization was a result of improved farming and the migration
of former farm workers to urban areas. Factories grew in cities as a result of an
increase in beneficial inventions, which made work faster and easier. Later
continental Europe followed Britain’s example and industrialized. The changes that
began in Britain paved the way for modern industrial societies.
The Industrial Revolution refers to a time period of increased
output of machine-made goods that began in England during the
18th Century. Before this revolution, people made products by hand
such as weaving cloth. Beginning in the middle 1700s, machines
did this and other jobs as well.
The Agricultural Revolution leads to Industrialism
In the early 1700s, small farms covered England’s landscape.
Wealthy large landowners bought much of the land that had been
owned by poor village farmers. They introduced improved farming
methods by rotating crops annually and increasing the size of their
animals. These agricultural changes amounted to an agricultural
revolution.
After buying up the land of village farmers, wealthy landowners
enclosed their land with fences or hedges. This process of taking
land and consolidating it was called enclosure. Within these larger
fields, enclosures, landowners experimented to discover more
productive farming methods to boost crop yields. The enclosure
movement had two important results. First, landowners
experimented with new agricultural methods. Second, large
landowners forced small farmers to become tenant farmers, a
person who rents the land he farms, or to give up farming. When
farmers lost their land to large enclosed farms, many moved to the
city and became factory workers.
Their
increased
landholdings
enabled
them to cultivate more
fields, using new seeding
and harvesting methods
such as the seed drill
invented by Jethro Tull,
one of the first scientific
farmers. He saw that the
usual way of sowing
seed by scattering it across
the ground was wasteful.
Many of the seeds failed to
take root. He solved this
problem in 1701 with the
seed drill, a new mechanical
device that deposited seeds
in rows. It allowed farmers to sow seeds in well-spaced rows at
specific depths. A larger share of the seed germinated, boosting
crop yields. This resulted in an increase in farm output.
In addition the iron plow replaced the wooden plow in the 1700s.
By the early 1800s farmers used mechanical reapers.
The process of crop rotation was one of the best ideas of
scientific farmers. One year a farmer might plant a field with
wheat, which exhausted soil nutrients. The next year he planted a
root crop, such as turnips, which restored nutrients as discovered
by Charles ‘turnip’ Townshend. This might be followed in turn
by barley, then clover. This rotation kept the soil healthy and
increased crop production annually. Another help in the 1700s was
the invention of the iron plow, an improvement over the wooden
plow.
1. What were some of the effects of enclosure and crop rotation?
Livestock breeders improved their methods, too. In the 1700s, for
example, Robert Bakewell increased his mutton output by
allowing only his best sheep to breed. Other farmers followed
Bakewell’s lead. Between 1700 and 1786 the average weight for
lambs climbed from 18 to 50 pounds.
As a result of these improvements, farm output increased.
More food was available, and people enjoyed healthier diets. The
population of Britain grew. The agricultural revolution helped
produce the Industrial Revolution.
Britain’s Advantages for Industrial Revolution
For several reasons, Britain was the first country to have an
economy based on industry. One reason is that the small island
country now had a large population. Britain’s population soared
from about 5 million in 1700 to almost 9 million in 1800. Europe’s
population increased from 120 million to 180 million. The
agricultural revolution’s increased ‘good’ food production meant
healthier diets and an abundance of food.
A second reason is that Great Britain had extensive natural
resources and industrialization, the process of developing
machine production of goods, required such resources. It had 1)
coal and water to power machines, 2) iron ore to make machines
and tools, 3) rivers to move people and goods, and 4) good harbors
for shipping goods to other lands. Britain also had a system of
banks that could fund new businesses. Finally, the British
government was fairly stable, which gave the country a positive
attitude.
In addition to its natural resources, Britain had an expanding
economy to support industrialization. Businesspeople invested in
new inventions. Britain’s highly developed banking system also
contributed to industrialization. People were encouraged by the
availability of bank loans to invest in new machinery and expand.
Growing overseas trade, economic prosperity, and a climate of
progress contributed to more demand for goods.
Lastly, Britain’s political stability gave the country a big
advantage over its neighbors. Though Britain fought many wars
during the 1700s, none of these occurred on British soil. Also, their
military and political successes gave the British a positive attitude.
Parliament passed laws to protect business and help expansion.
Britain had all the factors of production: resources needed to
produce goods and services; land; labor; and wealth.
2. What helped to spur the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain?
Turning Point in History: In 1750 most people lived and worked in small farming villages, made their own clothes and grew their
own food. By 1850 villages grew into industrial cities. There were more workers in factories than workers on farms. Rural life
disappeared. People bought food and clothes. Steam engines on trains and ships encouraged travel.
Define: Eli Whitney
James Watt
cotton gin
entrepreneur
flying shuttle
watt
spinning jenny
Manufacturing: Textile Mills
The Industrial Revolution in Britain was spurred by in technology.
This is most obvious in the textile industry. Inventions in the late
1700s transformed cloth manufacturing. These developments had
an impact on the world. England’s cotton came from plantations in
the American South, where cotton production skyrocketed from
1790 to 1810 in response to demand from the textile mills of
England. This demand was aided in 1793 by Eli Whitney’s cotton
gin which separated the sticky seeds from the picked cotton plants.
The gin cleaned more cotton than done by hand. American cotton
production skyrocketed from 1.5 million pounds in 1790 to 85
million pounds in 1810. Slavery also became imbedded in
American agricultural life.
Britain’s textile industry clothed the world in wool, linen, and
cotton. This industry was the first to be transformed. Cloth
merchants boosted profits by speeding up the process of spinning
and weaving. By 1800, several inventions modernized the cotton
industry. In 1733, John Kay made a flying shuttle that sped back
and forth on wheels. This boat-shaped piece of wood to which yarn
was attached, doubled the work a weaver could do in a day.
Spinners could not keep up with the weavers now. So in 1764,
James Hargreaves, invented a spinning wheel named spinning
jenny, which allowed one spinner to work eight threads at a time.
At first, textile workers operated the flying shuttle and the
spinning jenny by hand. Then Richard Arkwright invented the
water frame in 1769. The machine used the waterpower from
rapid streams to drive spinning wheels and jennies.
In 1779, Samuel Crompton combined features of the spinning
jenny and the water frame to produce the spinning mule. The
spinning mule made more thread that was stronger, finer, and
consistent. Run by waterpower, Edmund Cartwright’s power loom
sped up weaving after its invention in 1787.
The water frame, spinning mule, and power loom were bulky,
expensive machines. So spinning and weaving moved out of the
house and into large buildings called factories, built close to
rivers, which provided a source of energy. These factories were
built to house all spinning and weaving machines in the textile
industry and to keep the processes secret. These machines helped
Britain to become a world producer of cotton. In 1785 40 million
yards were produced. By 1850, England produced 2 billion yards !
water frame
spinning mule
power loom
factories
However in 1789 an Englishman, Samuel Slater, immigrated to
the US. Little did his former employers at the Strutt Cotton Mill in
Derbyshire know that Slater memorized the spinning machines and
water frames which he duplicated in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in
1790. Slater’s Mill was the first successful water-powered spinning
mill in the US. Slater became known as the "Father of the
American Factory System" and America went ahead of Britain in
cotton production by the mid-1800s.
3. What were the major inventions in the textile industry?
Improvements in Transportation
Textile industry progress spurred other innovations. The first, a
steam engine, started from the need for a cheap source of power.
The earliest steam engine was used in mining in 1705. But this
early model used great quantities of fuel, making it too expensive.
In 1712, Thomas Newcomen invented a steam engine powered by
coal. It was used to pump water out of British coal mines.
Then in 1764, James Watt, a Scottish mathematical instrument
maker, tried to repair a Newcomen engine and ended up inventing
a better one. His engine stopped steam
loss to make it more efficient. In 1769,
Watt patented his steam engine, which
worked faster while burning less fuel.
In 1774, Watt joined an English
entrepreneur, Matthew Boulton, who
organized, managed, and put up
capital, money, for their new business.
While Boulton took all the risks, he
paid Watt to build better engines.
The measure of mechanical and electrical
power, a watt, is named for James Watt. He
used horses to describe the power of his engine.
He found that a horse could lift 550 pounds of
coal 10 feet high in 10 seconds or 33,000
pounds per foot per minute. Thus the power of
engines is measured in ‘horsepower.’ Today an
SUV has a 200 horsepower engine. In
comparison, a light bulb, measured in watts is
anywhere from 40 to 250 watts. One horsepower
equals 745.56 watts…now that’s power!
Water Transportation Steam could also be used to propel boats.
American inventor, Robert Fulton, bought a steam engine from
Boulton and Watt. In 1807 Fulton’s steamboat, the Clermont,
successfully ferried passengers along New York’s Hudson River.
In England, water transportation improved with the creation of a
network of canals, or human-made waterways. By the mid-1800s,
4,250 miles of inland channels slashed the cost of transporting raw
materials.
Road Transportation British roads improved. In the early 1800s
John McAdam, a Scottish engineer equipped roadbeds with layers
of stones for drainage. On top was a smoothed layer of crushed
rock. Now even in rainy weather wagons could travel over the new
“macadam” roads without sinking in mud.
Private investors formed companies that built roads and then
operated them for profit. People called the new roads turnpikes
because travelers had to stop at tollgates to pay a toll
What did you learn?
Identify the causes of the Industrial Revolution in Great
Britain.
What effect did this revolution have on America?