Why Great Britain Started the Industrial Revoluton

Why Great Britain Started the Industrial Revoluton

1. Labour

   • Enclosure Movement
   • population continued to grow on the base of the 18th-century population explosion
   • better forms of transportation (such as the railway) allowed people to migrate to the cities…by 1850, one-half of the population of England and Whales and one-quarter of the population of France and Germany had become town-dwellers

2. Natural Resourses

   • Coal, iron ore,etc

3. Capital

   • money made in early industries (textile, iron-making, etc.) was reinvested
   • Industrial Revolution grew on itself

4. Markets

   • the end of the French Revolution and the wars of Napoleon opened the continent up to British products
   • the Latin American wars of independence opened the markets of Central and South America
   • the United States and Canada demanded British products
   • through its control of India, Britain commanded the markets of southern Asia

5. Transportation

   • canals
   • railways: 1830s and 1840s were the great age of railway building

6. Entrepreneurship

   • strong middle class
   • liberal nobles who were willing to invest in new ventures

7. Government Support

   • strong navy to protect merchant ships
   • commercially minded Parliament
   • few laws to limit what entrepreneurs could do