Industrial Revolution in Great Britain

 Transformation of the economy

 

–          promoted the first industrial and consumer-orientated society in Britain

–          British manufactured goods dominated world trade

–          Commercial, financial and political power, supremacy

–          Range and variety of products

–          Products also overstock the markets oversea

–          Mid-Victorian years change in economy and society

–          Improvement in organisation, finance of industry and commerce, skills and work practices of production and technology, urbanisation, canal, river, road and sea transport

–          Growth of population

–          Railways

–          From agriculture to industry and trade

–          Ideals of gender, ethnicity and class changed as well as ideologies and aesthetics

–          especially the cotton sector grew because of the import out of the colonies

–          however, the growth of national income remained slow, some small manufactures were more successful than large firms and also the capital market was less important than the family finance

 

 

Consumer revolution

 

–          demand for goods resulted from rising incomes and the larger number of consumers

–          a greater variety was wanted

–          china, cutlery, mirrors, books, clocks, furniture, curtains, bedding, buckles, ribbons, buttons, and so ono

–          also greater variety of food: beer, butter, bread, milk, meat, vegetables, fruit, fish, and so on; now being bought and not made/grown at home

–          social emulation: the social classes aspired the consumption of the superior class

–          advertising and department stores increased

 

 

Change in Britain

 

–          until the 1840s mainly cotton was responsible for the success

–          markets became overstocked à recession

–          growing demand from other industrialising nations

–          British manufactures extended: iron, steel and engineering

–          Capital and credit were easily available

–          Corn Laws in 1846 (prevention of the importation of foreign grains)

–          Time of isolation in agriculture used for investment and specialisation

–          Great Exhibition of 1851 marked the peak of British economic dominance

–          British products displayed in Crystal Palace in Hyde Parl

–          Slowly other countries like Germany and the United States were catching Britain up

–          Cheaper supplies of energy and raw material

–          Growth in the economy decreased from the 1870s: farming, textiles, iron and steel, engineering and several other goods

–          New industries like chemicals mainly pioneered in Germany

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