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The Industrial Revolution was probably
one of the greatest transformations in
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human history. Arguably, it has changed how humans live
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more than any event since the
Agricultural Revolution.
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Industrialization - producing goods on a
scale beyond what could be made in the
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home - has helped to shape the kind of
work we do today. It led to fewer farmers,
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fewer artisans, and more people in wage paid jobs in factories, or in jobs that
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support factories. It changed where we
live, moving us from rural villages or
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small towns into apartments and houses
and big cities. And it even influenced how
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our days are structured. The school bell
and the factory whistle and shift work
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reshaped our understanding of time. It
gave us a world of mass-produced stuff,
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from clothing, to tools, to iPhones, all
obtainable only with money we earn from
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our industrial jobs. And increasingly it
affects the very air we breathe and the
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water we drink. And since the Industrial
Revolution began in the 18th century,
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these changes have happened more rapidly and spread to more places around the
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world. How did the Industrial Revolution
begin? To answer that question, we are
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going to focus on the region where it
all started: northern England. It was here
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that the coal-fired steam engine, the
textile factory, and the other elements
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of modern industrialization first all
came together in the mid-18th century.
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But why was this part of England
specifically at the heart of these
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incredible and turbulent transformations?
I'm here at the Caphouse Colliery, at
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the National Coal Mining Museum, to begin the search for answers to that question.
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This is a colliery - a mine from which
coal is extracted. Coal fueled the
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Industrial Revolution; it was coal that
made new steam engines possible, and it
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was these new steam engines that powered industrial factories, trains, and
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steam ships. The first steam engines were rudimentary and were not invented in
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Britain. They were first invented in
China, some hundred years before the
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Industrial Revolution. So why did
steam-powered industrialization take off
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in Britain, and not China? Some historians
argue Britain had a unique set of
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environmental factors that made
coal-fired steam power cheap and easy
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here. First, Britain had very large coal
deposits. The coal was also quite near
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the surface - that means they were easy to mine with 18th-century technology. The
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only problem was that these mines
sometimes filled up with water, but steam
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engines solved that problem. The first
steam engines in England, which were very
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inefficient, were, in fact, used to pump
water out of coal mines. They were so
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inefficient, that they were only useful
in a place where coal was pretty much
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free, at the head of the mines. In addition,
British coal mines were close to cities
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where factories and cheap labor to
work in them were in ready supply.
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Finally, Britain is quite flat, which made
it possible to build canals to connect
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the cities to the coal.
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I'm here with Alan and Taz, 459 feet and two and a half inches underground to find out about
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the importance of coal, and what life was
like for miners.
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NICK: So why was coal important for the
Industrial Revolution in Britain?
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TAZ: Well, they discovered it could make steam. There's no steam without coal. Coal was
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important, and obviously steam, it were used to generate pumps, steam engines to wind
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men in and out of [the] mine. The first cars were steam, yeah? So it's been a massive
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part of this country's history, and helped
to make it what it is today. Without coal
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and steam, well, this country wouldn't be as great as what it is today. NICK: So how was
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the coal taken out of the mine, and where
did it go? ALAN: Well, in early days, it were
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taken out [of the] mine by manual labor. Women, children, anybody that needed
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employment were employed in the mines. TAZ: In the early days, when they started getting
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into what you'd call, you might think's a deep mine at 140 meters, there were
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a bucket, big bucket called the cable,
yeah, that would be lowered down to load
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it up, and then they'd have a horse on a rope, going around a wheel gin, which lifted
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the coal. Slow process but, still managed
to get it out. ALAN: Then obviously they started
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shallow, and then they went deeper and
deeper as technology progressed. The
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turning point was steam power, really. 'Cuz the coal burnt in steam boilers to
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produce steam power, which then motivated the production of coal - just, we could
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pump water out [of] the ground, and we could go deeper and deeper into thicker and more
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productive seams.
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NICK: The availability of coal wasn't the only reason that Britain was uniquely suited
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to industrialization. For better or for
worse, Britain was a nation with a long
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history of trade. In particular, Britain
had been in the textile industry for
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centuries, raising sheep, turning their
wool into cloth, and selling that cloth
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to Europe and the wider world. In 1700,
about 70% of British exports were
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woolen products, so it was a short but
significant step from the kinds of
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small-scale textile production in the
pre-industrial era, to the large textile
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mills of the industrial era.
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I've come to Nottingham, in the Midlands of England, to
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find out more about the role of textiles
in the development of the Industrial
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Revolution. I'm here at the Lace Hall
with Richard Brawn. NICK: So Richard, what
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kinds of textiles were produced here in
Nottingham? RICHARD: Lace - mainly lace. After 200 lace
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factories, [there's] only one actually running still in Nottingham. NICK: So how was the lace
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produced before the Industrial
Revolution? RICHARD: Most likely by hand. Then they
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produced the machine, which, you had to
power it yourself, moving pedals and
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things like this. Then they produced the
first lace machine which was powered
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by a shaft driven by steam engine.
And then after that it went from steam
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engine to an electric motor.
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NICK: Beyond commodities, Britain had finance. Partly because of the long history of
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textile production, Britain had lots of
merchants and other people who financed
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and made money from trade. These people became increasingly powerful in British
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government over many centuries. As a
result, by the 18th century, British laws
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were very friendly to those in industry
and trade. The country had a number of
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banks that supported new industrial
ventures, and there were lots of laws to
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protect private property. The availability of finance and legal
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protections encouraged people in England to take risks, and invest in new enterprises
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like factories. Some of the most
important of the new laws were patent
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laws, which protected people's rights to
profit from their new inventions, such as
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the machines that run the collieries
and mills. Another reason that factory
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owners in England adopted machines so
rapidly, was because wages were so high
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here, compared to many other parts of the world. As a result, it was too expensive
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to hire lots of people, so business owners looked for ways to save money by
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having machines do the work, instead. You might consider the rise of AI and robots
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that do the work of humans today, pretty
similar thinking.
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Some historians think that Britain's
industrialization wasn't principally a
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result of these internal factors at all,
but rather, really, a result of its place
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in global networks of trade, and at the
head of a vast empire. The list of global
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contributions to industrialization
proposed by historians is a long one.
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Some historians argue that profits made
from the trade in enslaved Africans, and
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their labor on Caribbean plantations,
helped fund technological innovations like
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the steam engine. Others point out that
food grown or fished in the American
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colonies by settlers, often taught by
indigenous people, flooded into Britain,
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allowing people there to concentrate on
factory work rather than farming.
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Similarly, natural resources flowed into
Britain from their colonies. Timber and
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cotton were particularly important, but
also the colonies were a captive market
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for British industrial products, once
British factories began to produce them.
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All of these factors - money, food, resources and markets - may well have
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spurred industrialization in Britain,
first. The Industrial Revolution helped to
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make Britain a global power and create
the largest territorial Empire in
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history. Slavery, the exploitation of
workers at home and abroad, and
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questionable trade arrangements were
fueled by technology, personal ingenuity,
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geography, and the laws of the land. The term 'Industrial Revolution' can hide
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these unique elements coming together,
that not only changed the lives of
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everyone involved, but also the lives of
everyone who came after.
