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Was The Industrial Revolution in England Inevitable
for carriage to Europe.¡¯ (H.Heaton 1933) These markets had populations willing and ability to consume industrial products at a large scale. Statistics show that exports from Great Britain doubled between 1720 and 1760 and doubled again by 1975. The huge foreign and domestic markets become forces make for growth.
Thirdly, economic organizations were improved during the seventeenth century. The improvement in commercial and financial structures gave rise to large-scale organizations. It also aroused the occurrence of the industrial revolution. Banking and exchanging system became more and more satisfactory. A lot of money and credit were provided by the rapid growing banks in London and in other countries. They were needed in increasing quantities during the process of the industrial revolution. ¡®Banking developed initially for the deposit and loan of money, but after 1760 the proliferation of banks was stimulated by a growing demand for short-term credit for working capital for industry, for the inter-regional and international transfer of funds to settle trading debts, and for cash (in the form of bank-notes).¡¯(H. Heaton 1933)
Joint stock companies were also established for all kinds of different purposes. H.Heaton pointed it out that some merchants who had risen from small beginnings to big industrialists established controls over both the production and the sale of the goods. These kinds of merchants not only had initial capital to buy raw materials in big amounts, but also knew the needs of the market. Therefore he gave orders to independent master manufactures instead of buying what was offered in the open market. Commercial capital became to combine industrial capital. The costs of industrial products were cut down in this way. ¡®The economies of supervision, discipline and time saving were realized by gathering many of these workers under one roof; while in mining, brewing, soap-making, smelting, shipbuilding, tanning, and the finishing trades large groups of men had to work together by reason of the very nature of their work or of the equipment they used.¡¯ (H. Heaton 1933)
Fourthly, the technological changes of the eighteenth century did not appear suddenly. Definitely, some important reasons behind made these changes occur. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the methods of making glass, clocks, and chemicals advanced apparently. By 1700 in England, the resistance from the state and the guilds upon industrialization was weakening. In fact, popular interest in industrialization created great enthusiasm. James Watt developed the steam engine, which was the fundamental invention that many historians took it as the most important cause of the Industrial Revolution. The steam engine can transfer the energy of fuel into mechanical work. In a steam engine, fuel is burned, the heat that this fuel produces is used to turn water into steam; this steam is used to make wheels roll in the engine. Steam engines were first used in coal and ore mines to pump water out of them. After James Watt improved the design of the [next page]