Changing the Pace of Change: Was There an Industrial

Revolution?

組員 : 黃筱雯 王瑞其 唐嘉伶 吳亭儀

Europeans were not privileged as late as 1700s

Our comparisons of European and Asian societies in previous chapters have shown that Europeans were not particularly privileged or advanced as late as the early 1700s.

The pace of innovation in great Eurasian civilizations slowed down

• The orthodox and conformist regimes of Manchu China and Ottoman Turkey practically halted their previous pace of innovation and change.

• From the early 1600s onward, Europe experienced a striking increase in the number of scientific and technological innovations, becoming the world’s leading center of technical change.

The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851.

However• Most of these changes simply allowed the more

advanced parts of Europe to catch up to the more advanced parts of China and other regions of Asia.

中國人眼中的瑞典人

Even when the “Sun King” Louis XIV ruled over the largest and most powerful kingdom in Europe, France was still lagged behind the glory of the city of Rome at its peak.

Pont du Gard, the great Roman aqueduct near Nîmes, remained one of the largest bridges in France.

If the term “Industrial Revolution” is taken to mean “a rise in living standards to higher levels than anything seen in previous world history,” then no such thing occurred before 1850.

If by the “Industrial Revolution” we do not mean an outcome, but a process, then an Industrial Revolution definitely occurred in Europe, and more particularly in Britain, between 1700 and 1850.

By 1880, Britain’s capital has become a teeming metropolis of nearly 4 million people, far eclipsing any city in any region of the world from earlier times.

• Something important must have happened between 1700 and 1850 in Europe.

• By the end of it Europeans were launched on a path to economic and military domination.

How did the world change so much so fast?

How did growth occur?

The law of diminishing returns was broken.

• Costs dropped.

• Output increased.

What is the law of diminishing returns?• At a certain point revenue (returns) goes down f

or every additional input.

Input

(Workers)

Total Output

(Lawn Mowed)

Additional Output

(Additional Lawn Mowed)

0 0 0

1 2 2

2 7 5

3 10 3

4 12 2

5 13 1

6 13 0

7 10 -3

GROWTH

This graph shows some prosperous parts of England, while others were not so lucky.

What was it that really created this drastic change during 19 century?

• Newly transformed industries

( iron, coal mining, cotton)

＋Further innovations ＋ New industries

＋Service industries (financing, insurance, etc)

The transformation took time

• Before 1850, most goods are made by

hands.

• After 1850, thanks to limitless energy,

cheap raw materials, most goods are

made in factories

Table 7.2

What is the power behind industrialization?

Successful innovations was the driving force, in search of more efficient, novel ways of making and moving goods.

These innovations and advances in technology have often occurred in history.

• Chinese: paper, compass, canal lock, etc.

• Roman: arch, aqueduct.

• Islamic societies: windmill, clock, university.

Yet, all the above had no continuity of growth.

What transformed Europe and then the world was constant innovations in

• Agriculture• Transport• Manufacturing• Education• marketing

• Most importantly: The culture of innovation, the “continuously emergent novelty.”

Were Factories a Crucial innovation?

FACTORIES are NOTING NEW WHEN INDUSTRIALIZATION EMERGED IN EUROPE

In ancient Egypt and imperialism China, hundreds of people work together in high-demanding tasks.

Steam engine plays a more critical role than factory

• Provided people new possibilities of manufacturing and using firepower.

• Steam engine was widely applied to domains of mine, transportation and agriculture during the transformation of industry in Europe.

• Changed the mode of production and transition.

The Evolution of Steam Engine

The first steam engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712 Watt’s improved model

.

Steam engine in factory Agriculture steam engine

Was the Industrial Revolution Related to Scientific

Advances?

Scholars assumed:

• The Industrial Revolution--a response to basic economic factors, such as changes in supply and demand.

1600-1700

Some believe

Leisured class

• Pursue the study of nature (called “natural philosophy”)

Manufacturers

• Interested in securing supplies of raw materials and disciplined laborers

The Steam Engine

• The Newcomen engine exploited the scientific discoveries made in the seventeenth century by Robert Boyle and Denis Papin, both members of Britain’s Royal Society for natural philosophy.

• James Watt improved upon Newcomen’s steam engine in the eighteenth century.

• Watt was deeply involved in building and maintaining scientific instruments, and his inventions depended on new ways of measuring heat and work.

• Watt was in frequent contact with the leading scientists of his day.

Arkwright’s Cotton-spinning Machine

• Many British clockmakers and instrument-makers were looking for ways to make machines to improve the spinning of cotton.

• Arkwright offered John Kay financial backing for his work and together they succeeded in developing the twisting rollers that were essential to the machine.

A Culture of Innovation

• To be effective, this culture of innovation had to spread beyond any one social group or class.

• Innovations depended on the skills of literate, educated technicians and craftspeople and the interplay of such skills with the ambitions of entrepreneurs and the new findings of science.

A Culture of Innovation

• Throughout the1700s and early 1800s, these interactions produced an accelerating stream of technical innovations: agricultural implements and screw-cutting lathes; cotton-spinning machinery; steam engines

A Culture of Innovation

• steamships

• railways

• major improvements in mining and drainage and agricultural technology

• bridge and road building

• mass production of chemicals such as soda and sulfuric acid

A Culture of Innovation

• new and improved machine tools for working wood and metal

• heavy construction and earth-moving equipment

• many more

• How did this culture of innovation arise and become widespread?

• How did it displace the more traditional patterns of economic and intellectual life?

• How did Europe—and Britain in particular—become obsessed with discovering new technological processes and inventions and develop the skills and tools to do so?

Thanks for your attention