The Industrial Revolution in England

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The Industrial Revolution in England

• AP European HistoryMcKay, Chapter 22

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I. Industrial Revolution - Origins

• 1. The Industrial Revolution began in England -
  it was new and unplanned.
• 2. There were no models to copy - England had to
  pioneer the technology.

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I. Industrial Revolution - Origins

• 1. A growing market - a reason for Englands
  leadership in the industrial revolution was
  certainly the expanding Atlantic economy.
• 2. The colonial empire that England aggressively
  built, along with a strong position in Latin
  America and the African slave trade created a
  growing market for English manufactured goods.
• 3. It was cheaper to ship goods by water than by
  land - all of England was close to navigable
  water.

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I. Industrial Revolution - Origins

• 4. Rivers and canals provided easy movement of
  Englands large deposits of iron and coal,
  resources that would be critical in the
  industrial age.
• 5. Agriculture also played a large role in
  Englands industrial development. Englands
  farmers were second only to the Dutch in
  productivity in 1700 and were continually
  adapting new methods.

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I. Industrial Revolution - Origins

• 6. The result was a consistent period of good
  harvests and consequently low food prices. This
  allowed the English family to spend money on
  other items - thus creating a need for more
  manufactured goods.
• 7. England also had a well developed central
  bank and credit markets - that along with stable
  government, let the economy operate with few
  controls.

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II. The First Factories

• 1. The English cotton textile industry led to
  the creation of the worlds first large
  factories.
• 2. James Hargreaves invented the cotton-spinning
  jenny.
• 3. Within 20 years the cotton industry increased
  10 times over.

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II. The First Factories

• 4. Richard Arkwright invented the water frame.
  A water-powered spinning machine.
• 5. Cotton spinning was almost always
  concentrated in factories after the development
  of the machines - cotton goods became cheaper to
  produce and thus cheaper to buy.
• 6. An obvious consequence of the factories was
  the movement of people from the rural areas to
  the city. Weavers were among the best-paid
  workers in England.

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II. The First Factories

• 7. Weavers were those who took the factory-spun
  yarn and wove it into bolts of cotton material.
• 8. Since weavers were so well paid and their
  skills in demand, many agricultural laborers
  became handloom weavers.
• 9. Capitalists soon sought to invent a power
  loom to save on labor costs, however handloom
  weavers continued to receive good wages until at
  least 1800.

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III. Factory Working Conditions

• 1. Children were employed in the factories -
  particularly children who had been abandoned by
  their parents and put in the care of local
  parishes.
• 2. The parishes apprenticed the children to the
  factory owners.

• 3. Apprenticed workers were usually forced by
  law to labor for their master for as many as 14
  years.
• 4. Housed, fed, and locked up nightly in factory
  dormitories - they received little or no pay and
  faced harsh physical punishment.

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IV. The Need for Power

• 1. Wind and water power were obviously used, but
  more efficient means of power were sought after.
• 2. Processed wood had been made into charcoal
  and used in the iron industry - the appetite for
  wood was enormous and Englands forest were
  becoming bare.
• 3. However, England did have an abundant amount
  of coal.

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IV. The Need for Power

• 1. The steam engine was invented - coal was
  burned to heat water and produce steam for power.
• 2. James Watt, while repairing a Newcomen steam
  engine, discovered a design flaw and remedied the
  problem.
• 3. His newly designed engine gave humanity
  unlimited power for the time.

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V. Railroads

• 1. In 1830 a set of rails was put down and a
  steam locomotive traveled from Liverpool to
  Manchester it was a technical and financial
  success.
• 2. Now goods could be efficiently shipped across
  land.

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VI. The Great Exhibition

• 1. In 1851 London was the site of the Great
  Exhibition - an industrial fair.
• 2. The Exhibition was held in the Crystal
  Palace, an architectural masterpiece made
  entirely of glass and iron, which was cheap and
  abundant.
• 3. The little island of Great Britain was the
  workshop of the world.