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Prerequisites for Industrialization
- large labor supply
- investment capital
- supportive government
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18th Century Origins
- expanding Atlantic economy
- fluorishing English agriculture
- effective central bank and credit system
- stable and predictable government
- mobile rural wage earners
- Fundamental nature was adaptation and change
- Continuous adaptation is a permanent revolution
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Impact of the Industrial Revolution
- excess farm workers move to cities
- Exploitation of natural resources
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Richard Arkwright and James Hargreaves
- Arkwright: Water Frame
- Hargreaves: Spinning Jenny
- combined waterpower, new machinery, semi-skilled labor, and a new raw material (cotton) to create mass produced thread
- these combined to make Britain the largest producer of textile products in the world until mid-1800s
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James Watt's Steam Engine
- did not actually invent the steam engine
- what he did invent was the pressure relief valve which allows safe operation of the steam engine without the explosion of boilers
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Significance of the steam engine
- requires a specialized facility for its use near a ready source of coal
- changed the location of factories, freeing the factory to be located in the most economical location, instead of near the closest water supply
- this meant that they could be built near population centers, where there was a ready labor force to work the machines and produce the goods
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The Crowning Invention: Railroads
- the world's first railway line ran from Manchester to Liverpool, almost 35 miles
- the first locomotive was "The Rocket"
- Revolution in land transportation resulted in lower prices for transportation and goods
- Laborers shift to the city and factories
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Culture changes produced from railroads
- leisure time
- changes in needs for education
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The industrial Revolution on the continent
- Industrialized in a different pattern than Britain
- Industrialized later in eastern Europe
- Entered industrialization at an advanced stage
- railraods and banks were instrumental
- child labor was commonplace
- delayed industrialization is far from automatic:
- competition from cheap British goods
- complicated technology
- expansive technology
- shortage of laborers
- Authorities suspicious at first
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Labor Discipline
- fines
- low wages
- corporal punishment
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Four Primary Reasons which may be sited in population growth
- decline in death rate
- an increase in birth rate
- the virtual elimination of the dreaded plagues
- an increase in the availability of food
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