Economic Reordering

Industrial Revolution in Europe

Egypt, Ottoman Empire, India

Qing China

1750-1850

The Industrial Revolution

• spanned approximately 100 years from1780 to1880

• essentially a change from an agrarian and handicraft society to one that was dominated by urban, machine-powered manufacturing

• process of development was extremely uneven; some regions industrialized almost overnight while some parts of Europe would not be effected until the early 20th century

Industrialization

• Industrialization depended on several factors: – Inventive spirit – to apply scientific knowledge

to the process of production – the development of new energy to power

machines; water power and later coal fired engines

– the availability of human labour– the availability of capital for investment

Economic structures•  The Industrial Revolution completed the

process of transforming basic measure of wealth from land ownership to capital

• A process that had begun in the early modern period that fused together production, international trade, imperialism, and a sophisticated economic infrastructure to support it

• There was capital to invest in expensive machines and processes that promised to pay a return on investment

Industrialization

• An uneven process – begins in Britain in the 1780s and spreads to the continent by the 1830s

• Not only does it change the economic structure of Europe and the world but also has an incredible impact on social life

• Builds on an earlier trend of seeing people fundamentally as consumers

Why Britain?

• Several factors may have contributed in varying degrees, and also acted in combination

• Economic Reasons:   stability• Mercantilism and Commerce of the 17th century • Agricultural revolution: capitalism and farming • Surplus Capital • Physical Infrastructure • Geography and Natural resources • Diversity of Climate and Resources • Rising Population: human resource

Britain: Inventive Society • since 1660s--interest in science and astronomy

as a gentlemanly pursuit, real applications of science to industry

• Entrepreneurs in the early years of the Industrial Revolution:  from the minor gentry or yeoman farmer class; or  master craftsmen with interest in mechanics and engineering

• Impact of the 18th century Enlightenment: dissemination of ideas

• interest in science and physics, mathematics, leads to technical innovations

Markets for Goods

• Domestic:– small island nation; not divided into restrictive

trading zones--no tariffs between regions--easy movement of goods because of canals and turnpikes

• International: – Britain's foreign policy tied to commercial

interests and the maintenance of Empire. Britain had largest merchant marine fleet and most powerful navy in the world

Secondary Industry: Textiles

• The textile industry grew by leaps and bounds in the early modern period – using wool – we discussed how that changed the economy of Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries

• Shift from wool to cotton – available from India and later the American south in great supply

• application of mechanization of several stages involved in the production of textiles between 1730 and 1830 changes entire industry

The Spinning Jenny, invented around 1764 made it possible to spin raw cotton into thread much faster than doing it only by hand as it had been done traditionally

The invention of “Water Frame” in 1769 quickened the pace of thread production, which would be used by 250,000 English weavers

The invention of the “Flying Shuttle” in 1733 in Britain increased weaving speed and the size of looms – putting heavy demand on the production of thread to be weaved into cloth

By the 1820s, however, the power loom was perfected, putting all of those weavers out of work

The impact of textiles

• British Textiles flooded world markets with material that was cheap, washable, versatile, good in hot climates

• By 1815 the export of cotton textiles represented 40 per cent of the value of all domestic goods exported from Great Britain

• Prices of textiles fall, but the market continued to expand as clothing changes

Russia

• Russian monarchs in the 17th and 18 centuries had been very keen on forging closer ties with Europe and adopting enlightenment principles of state

• They did not, however, tolerate any challenge to the power of the tsar and the noblility

In December 1825 a group of army officers led an uprising to secure a constitution along the lines of the French Revolution

Tsar Nicholas I crushed the rebellion and made it a hallmark of his 30-year rule to suppress all liberal reform in Russia

Assimilation: Egypt

• After the defeat of Napoleon, Muhammad Ali (1769-1848) initiated a series of Western-style reforms in Egypt.

• The Ottoman sultans followed suit in the first half of the 19th century

India

• By 1800, the British East India Company had made strong inroads in controlling imports and exports into India – thus controlling the flow of wealth

• Although the Mughal empire continued in name, the real governmental control in India is in the hands of the Company

• This led to the development of new forms of direct and indirect imperial control over India

The Qing Empire• By the end of the 18th century, the strong

leadership and economic prosperity of the Qing Empire began to crumble

• Internally, there was extensive corruption in the bureaucracy and an economic downturn

• Externally, industrial powers were forcing open more and more Chinese markets for Western goods and opium

• Both of these pressures gave rise to groups to challenge the Qing control

Opium Wars• The trade in Opium was controlled by the British,

who sold the drug made in India worldwide• The Qing emperor had made a strong effort to

ban opium and in the 1830s had tried to stamp out the trade

• British merchants complained and the British military stepped in to lift the ban

• Having defeated the Chinese in 1839 and again in 1842, the British forced them to sign the Treaty of Nanjing, giving the British control over a number of Chinese ports

By the early 19th century, almost 1 per cent of China’s population of 300 million people were addicted to opium

Superior arms gave the British the upper hand

Conclusion

• The ascendancy of commerce and trade as the dominant means of wealth was secured by the industrial revolution

• The new economic circumstances that emerged during the industrial revolution also put colonial powers on the path to taking more direct control of the rest of the world to secure raw material and markets for the sale of their goods