The Industrial Revolution began in England in the
second part of the 18th century. The new, fastdeveloping commercial activities, the rapid conquest of
overseas markets, and the consequent immense profits,
were made possible by the invention of new machines.
The first machines were introduced into the textile
industry and agriculture. In 1701 the Dutchman Jethro
Tull had invented the mechanical seed-drill. Other
important inventions were:
- Richard Arkwright’s water-frame, a spinning machine
patented in 1769;
- James Hargreaves’ ‘spinning Jenny’, a weaving
machine patented in 1770;
- James Watt’s steam engine, patented in 1769; at
first it was used in mining and in 1785 it was applied to
weaving machines.
The worldwide diffusion of industry and trade was
made possible by the invention of steam ships in
1807, by the American Robert Fulton, and steam
trains, patented by George Stephenson in 1811. These
new means of transport improved communications
between distant countries and isolated parts of the
same country: in 1818 the first steamship crossed the
Atlantic, and in 1825 Stephenson inaugurated the first
railway line between Stockton and Darlington. In 1830
the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened: it was
the first locomotive operated public line in the world.
The Industrial Revolution was also characterized by the
development of the extensive network of roads, canals
and railways that in the course of the 19th century
covered the country. Improvements in roads led to the
introduction of a regular postal service.
The textile industry was mechanized and the iron
industry developed, favoured by Britain’s great coal and
iron deposits in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Wales. The
increase in production was astonishing; cotton imports
to supply textile manufacturers, for instance, grew from
one million pounds in 1701 to three million in 1750, 11
million in 1784 and 13 million in 1789. In the industrial
or mining areas small villages suddenly grew into large
towns, like Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham
and Newcastle.
Agriculture also developed quickly, thanks to new techniques involving fertilisation, draining, crop rotation,
new threshing machines and wheeled ploughs. Sheeprearing was partly replaced by cattle-rearing and the
cultivation of cereals, both of which supplied the food
needs of an ever-increasing population. The British
countryside was the most efficiently farmed in Europe.
The concentration of capital necessary to the industrial
growth and to world-wide trade favoured the formation
of the first international credit banks, such as the
famous Rothschild Bank, with branches in London, Paris,
Vienna, Naples and Frankfurt. Their financial power was
enormous.