The Background and Causes of the British Industrial Revolution, Research Paper Example

Harold Perkins, in his book “Origin of Modern English Society”, notes that “the Industrial Revolution was no mere sequence of changes in industrial techniques and production, but a social revolution with social causes as well as profound social affects” (Kreis, 2011, p. 1). While it is true that this revolution did, in fact, not only change the societal structures of England, and eventually the rest of the Europe and the United States, there are specific reasons why this revolution came about, and why is happened in England in particular.  This paper will seek to explore these reasons, focusing in on the Scientific Revolution, which began with Copernicus and went through the time of Sir Isaac Newton, and the Agricultural Revolution of the 17^th and 18^th centuries, both of which movements paved the way for industrialization.

The Scientific Revolution

Most historians consider that the “Scientific Revolution” began with the Italian Copernicus and his theory of the heliocentric universe, which radically upset previous notions of the geocentric universe where the sun and other planets revolved around the earth. Copernicus not only radically changed the way humans see the universe and our place in it, but his discoveries led to an age where scientific discovery in general was supported and lauded: after Copernicus came the astronomical discoveries of Kepler and Galileo and then the concepts of alchemy and “natural magic”, where Man manipulated Nature by practical means to achieve his ends.  Descartes, the French mathematician and philosopher, was also very much a part of this movement and his theories emphasized what he called “constructive skepticism” and an overall empirical and experimental way of viewing the universe. (Hatch, 2012, p. 4).  But it was in England that the Scientific Revolution came into its full flowering, first with Bacon (and the subsequent “institutionalization of science, with many scientific Royal Societies springing up in London and claiming Baconian roots) and of course, Sir Isaac Newton, with his “New Physics” of matter, motion and space which forever shaped the way the universe was viewed (Hatch, 2012, p.6).  It was in the spirit of this age, this quest for scientific knowledge and exertion of control over the natural world that so many early inventions came into being that would be the springboards of industrialization, including a process for smelting iron with coal and the steam engine which would lead to innovations like steam-powered trains and spinning machines which would lead to the rise of England’s great textile industry, one of the most important in the Industrial Revolution (Mack, 2005, p. 1).

The Agricultural Revolution

There can be no serious discussion of the background and causes of the British Industrial Revolution without an examination of the Agricultural Revolution which took place in the 17^th and 18^th centuries (Fordham University, 1997, p. 1).  At this time, the English farmers were some of the most productive agrarians in Europe, and this was largely due to their scientific experiments with types of grains and vegetables and manure and other fertilizers (Kreis, 2013, p. 2) as well as with other agricultural techniques such as crop rotation and more scientific breeding of livestock (Fordham University, 1997, p.2). The result of these experiments was a period of very high food productivity, which in turn pushed down the price of food so that the average English household suddenly had more discretionary income that they could spend on something other than food itself (Kreis, 2012, p. 3). This meant that there was a ready-made cadre of families who would be able to by the manufactured goods that England would eventually produce.  There are two more important ways in which the Agricultural Revolution paved the way for the industrialization which was to follow: both the Enclosure Movement, which ended the centuries-old tradition of communal farming in England and the increased mechanization of agriculture (which decreased the need for farm labor) led to a major displacement of many farm workers, who would later find work in the newly industrialized cities (Mack,  5). Thus, the Agricultural Revolution not only supplied the future factories with workers from displaced farms and farmers, it also provided a pool of families who had more discretionary income due to the lowered cost of food.  Without both these things, it is arguable that the scale of industrialization in England could not have happened.

Conclusion

Thus, it is easy to see just how much the Industrial Revolution owed to the two revolutions preceded it and how, in fact, it would not have happened at all had it not been for the social changes made by both the Scientific and Agricultural Revolutions. The Scientific Revolution, which had begun with the Copernicus on the Continent, fostered an intellectual environment which emphasized the improvable nature of both humanity and the natural world and which led to scientific exploit and the eventual underpinnings of industrialization itself.  The Agriculture Revolution was an exercise in taking many of the theories of the Scientific Revolution and applying them to the field – literal and metaphorical – of farming, with the results that food production increased and prices decreased.  Because of the reduction in food prices, families were able to spend money on the manufactured goods that would be a product of industrialization. The Enclosure Movement and the increased mechanization of agriculture during this time also provided the large labor force that would be needed to man the factories which were soon to spring up all over England in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. So while the Industrial Revolution was complex, the theoretical and agricultural underpinnings were complex as well, and the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, intellectually speaking, had its roots in movements and intellectual ideas that had happened centuries before.

References

“Industrial Revolution”. (1997). Fordham University Website.  Retrieved from www.fordham.edu/HALSALL/MOD/modsbook14.html

Hatch, R. “Scientific Revolution”.  (2012). University of Florida Website. Retrieved from http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/rhatch/pages/03-Sci-Rev/SCI-REV-Home

Kreis, S. (2011).  “Lecture 17: The Origins of the Industrial Revolution in England.” The History Guide Website. Retrieved from www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture17a.html.

Mack, P. “The Industrial Revolution”.  (2005). Clemson University Website. Retrieved from www.clemson.edu/caah/history/Faculty/Pages/PamMack/lec122/britir.htm