Posted: September 9th, 2015

The Industrial Revolution.

Of course trade is as old as mankind and people always have exchanged products that one country could produce while another could not, or that one could produce better or cheaper than another. However since the industrial revolution and the related transport revolution there has been a change in the scale of trade. Until that revolution trade concerned luxury. Only in coastal areas there was a limited trade in everyday products like as basic foodstuffs. A little further from the coast or a navigable river most production was for home consumption or consumption in the immediate vicinity. All basic materials were sourced locally: food, material for clothing (wool, linen), fuel (wood) and construction material (wood). In 18th century Britain the scarcity of these materials created the need for alternatives. Coal was used more and more, but could often not be produced locally, while cotton even had to come from overseas. Thus from the 18th century, the British Industrial Revolution created the need to involve resources from elsewhere: coal from other parts of England, cotton from overseas and more and more food and all kind of other raw material from all over the world. The English Industrial Revolution can be seen as a transition from a production process based on local materials to production processes based on materials from al over the world. Essential was the transport revolution, involving inland shipping and canals, railways and steamships, while communication was improved unprecedentedly by the telegraph. In this lecture the British industrial Revolution will be explained. In the literature the question is why this Revolution was in Britain and not in France or China?

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