Industrial Revolution - Episode 2
Episode 2
Origin of
Industrial Revolution
- It started in England and later spread to France,
Germany, Netherland, Austro Hungary Empires, and other nations.
Causes of Industrial
Revolution:
Positive factors which
led to Industrial Revolution
- Agricultural revolution: In the 17th century, various new techniques to increase agricultural products were discovered. Due to this, a huge agricultural surplus was created in the village. So people started thinking of new ways to marketize their products.
- Mercantilism: Mercantilism means to trade only for profit. In the time between 16th to 18th century, every country planned to accumulate huge wealth in their country, either in the form of gold, cash or any other forms.
- Long coastline of England: Coastline is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. England is the sum of various island. No places in the england is more than 150 km away from sea. Thus, the trade through sea was easy and cheap in England.
- Easily available semi-skilled workers: All farmers of England used to create handicrafts during off-seasons. Those farmers had some handicrafts related skills. Thus, when the industrial revolution began, the workforce with some skill were already available in England. These workforce were also curious to learn and grab new knowledge. This created foundation to the industrial revolution.
- Huge amount of coal and iron in England: England was rich in coal and iron from the very begining. Coal was used as a source of energy and iron was used as raw material.
- Supportive government: The government of England did not have any policy to start Industrial Revolution. But when the government started seeing progress in the country made by the private sector, it used to support those progress by providing government securities and giving access to national resources. Government provided economic support as well. This encouraged private sectors to work more.
- Less military and administrative expenditure: As compared to other European countries, England was spending less money in military and administrative sectors. Since England was quite far away from other countries due to sea, its border was always secured and England did not have to keep as many border security forces as other countries. Also, England's administrative expenditure was very low.
- Resources from colonies: England was able to collect huge raw materials from its colonies and its market was also ready. Raw materials were available for England in cheaper price and ready goods were sold back to those colonies in higher amount.
- Scientific inventions: Various new things were invented in England in 18th Century. Along with invention, innovation (to upgrade already invented things) also continued.
- Banks and banking systems: Italy had started banks and banking system in between 13th and 14th century. Various banks were established in bank even in that period. Those banks used to provide loans and strong financial support was available due to banks.
- Low population and higher cost of labor: Population of England was very less as compared to other countries and due to this reason, daily wage of labor was very high. Thus industrialist were mainly focusing on developing machines to do same work which required human forces. This was assumed to reduce labor cost and make production cheaper. For this purpose, industrialist used to create competition among scientists and inventors to develop new type of machines in cheaper price. This led to new researches.
Negative factors which
led to Industrial Revolution
- Insufficient products as per demand: All goods were manufactured manually. Thus process was slower but demand was growing day by day. Thus machines to manufacture clothes, utensils and other basic household materials were needed to be developed.
- Insufficient agricultural products/foods in cities: People living in cities were increasing day by day but there was no production of crops in city areas.Villagers were unable to fulfill their demand instantly because villages were very far away from cities. This triggered to the thought of developing engines to make delivery faster.
- Insufficient natural resources in existing territory: Almost all existing countries were increasing their territories in full speed to have access to huge resources. But due to lack of proper weapons and weapon manufacturing factories, war was difficult. This created the thought to develop strong weapons in people's minds.
- Less life expectancy of people: Any person suffering from any disease was supposed to be dependent on locally available herbal medicines. Any medicines which were available in another corner of the country were difficult to be transported. Few doctors living in very few places of countries were not able to provide their service. The life expectancy of people was near 35 years at that time. Thus for proper manufacturing and transportation of medicines, it was necessary to develop something new.
- Lack of proper communication media: For proper communication, horse riders were used during ancient times. This was a very slow system. But as people started thinking to do something new in the field of communication to increase its speed, they started upgrading their communication system, and finally, this brought huge changes in this sector.
REFERENCES
Lunn, P., 2021. Notes & Queries: Which British town is furthest from the sea?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2012/apr/25/british-town-furthest-from-sea#:~:text=Lichfield%20in%20Staffordshire%20has%20a,a%20distance%20of%2084%20miles.&text=Meriden%20is%20(in)famously%20the%20%22centre%20of%20England%22.> [Accessed 17 May 2021].
Study IQ education.
(2017, October 2). औद्योगिक क्रांति - Industrial Revolution in Hindi - World
History for IAS/UPSC/PCS [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GIRLGKSudk&t=29s
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