Economic Reordering

Changes in the Atlantic world opened the way for the industrial revolution and made Western Europe and North America the wealthiest and most powerful world leaders. Why China or India did not rise to this plateau of economic development is still debated.

Britain’S Economic Leadership

Coal, iron, new technologies, capital, internal markets, water transportation, and labor all contributed to Britain’s industrial development. Improvements in agriculture allowed it to feed more people and thus sustain larger cities, swelling with the surplus of a rising population. Peasants, cut off from the land, became laborers in the workshops of the cities, which turned raw materials from the colonies into manufactured goods. This economic change transformed the way people lived.

Trading and Financing

Ingredients or services from all parts of the globe drew together to form new products, such as tea and soap. The scale was such that even the poorer classes could afford imported goods. Merchants garnered immense fortunes, while lawyers, insurance agents, and financiers profited handsomely. Those enriched by commerce became the bourgeoisie. Eager to expand their influence, the bourgeoisie established ties with each other and began competing with the aristocratic class. Most bourgeoisie arose from the ranks of commoners, some becoming extremely powerful, like the Rothschilds.

As world trade led to greater integration of the world economy, these leaders sought to streamline economic relations and open trade in order to provide better opportunities. Political power and laws became the means to push for free trade, particularly when foreign countries employed protectionist policies or used high tariffs to protect their farmers or other interests. The New World initiated a drive to establish free trade relations with Europe: Latin America abolished protectionist tariffs, and the United States opened trade as well, but stopped somewhat short by refusing to allow cheap British goods to compete with locally produced goods. Europe, especially Britain, enjoyed inexpensive food items and raw materials as open markets and free trade became a guiding principle.

Manufacturing

As technical know-how developed among small operations in the countryside and then spread, it snowballed to produce the industrial revolution. Inventors, like James Watt who improved the steam engine, linked up with industrialists, thus combining thinking and producing. Improvements in steam engines and iron production, which opened the way for railways, steam-driven ships, and iron bridges, greatly cut distances. Textile production replaced home handicrafts and improved the quality and quantity of cloth. The cotton gin accelerated production of raw cotton, providing British looms with enough cheap cotton that prices of shirts dropped considerably. By the middle of the nineteenth century, industrialization had spread to other northern European countries, but these still lagged far behind the British. There, agriculture still dominated.

Working and Living

Industrialization meant that factory laborers as well as farmers and slaves worked harder. It also stimulated urbanization and great, but very unhealthy, cities began to emerge, especially in England. Parents and children contributed wages to the family. Most jobs meant long hours for all, including women and children. New commitments to time schedules and rigid work disciplines emerged. Labor often produced poor wages and numbing drudgery. Unemployment, however, was worse, and the unemployed were forced to work in workhouses under terrible conditions. Industrialization, while increasing production, also destroyed age-old handicraft industries and abused a new class of laborers, giving rise to social concerns and new legislation.

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