Industrial Revolution

What were the main advantages of being an island for British economic development before and during industrialization?
















Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Dual Bachelor of Law-Business Administration
The Industrial Revolution is one of the most notorious turning points in human history. The Industrial Revolution is the evolutionary process that leads a society froma traditional agricultural economy to one characterized by mechanized production processes to manufacture goods on a large scale. They move from the old world of rural to urban, from manual work to mechanized one; farmers leaving the camps and move to the cities thus emerges a new class of professionals.
Now, we don’t see the Industrial Revolution as an abrupt discontinuity like its name(‘revolution’) suggests, but as a process of an economic expansion, which started in the XVI Century and developed until nowadays. However, the XVIII Century represents a decisive break in the history of technology and the economy. The most representative inventions were the spinning jenny, the steam engine, coke smelting and so forth; they deserve their renown for his importance, and started a processthat has carried the west (at least) to the mass prosperity of the XXI Century. It can be said that Great Britain was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution but, what are the reasons? This is the question I’ll try to answer in this essay. In general terms, we could talk about 6 conditions which drove Britain to be the most advanced country by the time of the Industrial Revolution, these are:Abundance of natural resources (wool, cotton, iron and coal); easy agrarian transformations; strong population growth; capital availability; easy transport and communication and favourable position in international trade. We are going to talk about them, but we will put more emphasis in those which are related to its easy transport and communication, (due to its location in an island), which favoured thecommerce and isolated the country from enemies.


This revolution started in Great Britain, and many authors have discussed about why this occurred here first.
“Recent research has emphasized non-economic factors like the British constitution or British culture, both of which have been alleged to be superior. The matter, however, is controversial: While certain legal arrangements andcultural predispositions may have favoured economic development, it is not at all clear that Britain was alone in possessing them.”[1] (Robert C. Allen, 2011, p. 1)

Britain had the kind of institutions that were conducive to economic development and technological progress. Its government was by no means laissez-faire, but it supported innovating entrepreneurs and inventors against the fury ofartisans and domestic workers who tried to protect their turf.[2]
The incentive to mechanize production was much greater in England that, for example, in Germany, France or Austria; also British wages were exceptionally high compared with wages in other parts of Europe and in Asia, while the prices of capital and energy were exceptionally low; both of them were an important determinant for the technicalchange.
This price and wage structure affected the demand for technology by giving British businesses an exceptional incentive to invent technology that substituted capital and energy for labour. The high real wage also stimulated product innovation since it meant that Britain had a broader mass market for ‘luxury’ consumer goods including imports from East Asia. The stock of technology was alsoaugmented by the high real wage. It meant that the population at large was better placed to buy education and training than their correlatives elsewhere in the globe. As main idea, the resulting high rates of literacy and numeracy also contributed to invention and innovation in Great Britain’s Industrial Revolution.


Britain’s good fortune of having large supplies of iron and coal; and an...