Innovation and industrialization

Agriculture

Agriculture had dominated the British economy for centuries. During the 18th century, after a long period of enclosures, new farming systems created an agricultural revolution that produced larger quantities of crops to feed the increasing population. In early 19th-century Britain, land was of great political and economic significance: the aristocracy and gentry owned much of the countryside, and their tenants farmed and reared livestock. New tools, fertilizers and harvesting techniques were introduced, resulting in increased productivity and agricultural prosperity. Indeed, despite the phenomenon of urbanization and industrialization, agriculture remained a principal provider of employment in the provinces, both supporting and being supported by industry. Geographical specialization of products was established, with south-eastern England specializing in grain, for example, and Scotland or Leicestershire in breeding cattle and sheep. Paper money such as that from Yorkshire or Herefordshire illustrates the importance of farming through idealized images of agricultural bliss.

Industry

By the mid-18th century, population growth and increasing foreign trade created a greater demand for manufactured goods. Mass production was achieved by replacing water and animal power with steam power, and by the invention of new machinery and technology. Among other innovations, the introduction of steam power was a catalyst for the Industrial Revolution. James Watt’s improvements to the steam engine, and his collaboration with Matthew Boulton on the creation of the rotative engine, were crucial for industrial production: machinery could now function much faster, with rotary movements and without human power. Coal became a key factor in the success of industrialization; it was used to produce the steam power on which industry depended. Improvements in mining technology ensured that more coal could be extracted to power the factories and run railway trains and steamships. Britain’s cotton and metalworking industries became internationally important, but the manufacture of glass, soap and earthenware also flourished.

The early mechanization of the textile industry and the applications of new technologies, including Richard Arkwright’s water frame for the cotton spinning wheel, revolutionized production in the textile mills. More efficient ways of weaving cotton helped Manchester become the most important British centre of the cotton industry (often called ‘Cottonopolis’) and the world’s first industrial city. Paper money issued in Lancashire shows the importance of the textile industry in the county.

Like Manchester, Dewsbury grew substantially during the 19th century. It became an important centre of the ‘shoddy’ industry: that is, the recycling of old woollen products for the creation of blankets and other woollen goods of inferior quality. A banknote issued in Dewsbury bears an image of a local cotton recycling factory.

The metal industry developed into one of the most profitable in the country from the late 18th century onwards. Exported wares increased the flow of capital into the British economy, and the iron, copper and steel industries played an important role in changes to the country’s infrastructure and in the expansion of transportation networks. By the late 18th century, the west Midlands had become one of Britain’s major industrial centres and the area became known as the ‘Black Country’ because of its landscape of foundries and furnaces. Birmingham saw its metalworking industry flourish: brass fittings, buttons, guns, nails and pins were some of the most important goods that were mass-produced.

The Industrial Revolution, which took place from the 18th to 19th centuries, was a period during which predominantly agrarian, rural societies in Europe and America became industrial and urban. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the late 1700s, manufacturing was often done in people’s homes, using hand tools or basic machines. Industrialization marked a shift to powered, special-purpose machinery, factories and mass production. The iron and textile industries, along with the development of the steam engine, played central roles in the Industrial Revolution, which also saw improved systems of transportation, communication and banking. While industrialization brought about an increased volume and variety of manufactured goods and an improved standard of living for some, it also resulted in often grim employment and living conditions for the poor and working classes.

Before the advent of the Industrial Revolution, most people resided in small, rural communities where their daily existences revolved around farming. Life for the average person was difficult, as incomes were meager, and malnourishment and disease were common. People produced the bulk of their own food, clothing, furniture and tools. Most manufacturing was done in homes or small, rural shops, using hand tools or simple machines.

A number of factors contributed to Britain’s role as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. For one, it had great deposits of coal and iron ore, which proved essential for industrialization. Additionally, Britain was a politically stable society, as well as the world’s leading colonial power, which meant its colonies could serve as a source for raw materials, as well as a marketplace for manufactured goods.

As demand for British goods increased, merchants needed more cost-effective methods of production, which led to the rise of mechanization and the factory system.

INNOVATION AND INDUSTRIALIZATION

The textile industry, in particular, was transformed by industrialization. Before mechanization and factories, textiles were made mainly in people’s homes (giving rise to the term cottage industry), with merchants often providing the raw materials and basic equipment, and then picking up the finished product. Workers set their own schedules under this system, which proved difficult for merchants to regulate and resulted in numerous inefficiencies. In the 1700s, a series of innovations led to ever-increasing productivity, while requiring less human energy. For example, around 1764, Englishman James Hargreaves (1722-1778) invented the spinning jenny (“jenny” was an early abbreviation of the word “engine”), a machine that enabled an individual to produce multiple spools of threads simultaneously. By the time of Hargreaves’ death, there were over 20,000 spinning jennys in use across Britain. The spinning jenny was improved upon by British inventor Samuel Compton’s (1753-1827) spinning mule, as well as later machines. Another key innovation in textiles, the power loom, which mechanized the process of weaving cloth, was developed in the 1780s by English inventor Edmund Cartwright (1743-1823).

Developments in the iron industry also played a central role in the Industrial Revolution. In the early 18th century, Englishman Abraham Darby (1678-1717) discovered a cheaper, easier method to produce cast iron, using a coke-fueled (as opposed to charcoal-fired) furnace. In the 1850s, British engineer Henry Bessemer (1813-1898) developed the first inexpensive process for mass-producing steel. Both iron and steel became essential materials, used to make everything from appliances, tools and machines, to ships, buildings and infrastructure.

The steam engine was also integral to industrialization. In 1712, Englishman Thomas Newcomen (1664-1729) developed the first practical steam engine (which was used primarily to pump water out of mines). By the 1770s, Scottish inventor James Watt (1736-1819) had improved on Newcomen’s work, and the steam engine went on to power machinery, locomotives and ships during the Industrial Revolution.