The industrial revolution is an important turning point in the history of the development of capitalism. It is the starting point of capitalist industrialization caused by the technological revolution, and is a major leap from manual factory production to large machine industrial production based on the factory system. The Industrial Revolution changed the economic structure of the entire society. Humanity began to get rid of the agricultural society of thousands of years, and replaced it with the rise of industrialization, modernization and urbanization. The industrial revolution allowed the bourgeoisie to establish its dominance over the entire world.
1. Why did Britain start the Industrial Revolution first?
(1) The bourgeois revolution was the first to establish the constitutional monarchy .
The British Industrial Area during the First Industrial Revolution
From the end of the 15th century to the first half of the 16th century, with the pace of the geographical discoveries, Renaissance and the religious reform, the power of the British bourgeoisie developed to a certain extent. The feudal autocratic rule was gradually weakened, and the power of parliament gradually strengthened. In 1628, the "Petition of Rights" was passed, further restricting the king's rights. The British bourgeois revolution began in 1640 when Charles I convened a new parliament, which marked the beginning of the British bourgeois revolution. In 1688, the parliamentary opposition launched a palace coup (also known as the glorious revolution ), which marked the end of the British bourgeois revolution. The new aristocratic class represented a social revolution that overthrew the feudal autocratic rule and established the British capitalist system. Overthrown the feudal rule, and promulgated the document " Bill of Rights " in 1689 to clearly restrict the royal power in the form of law and established a parliamentary constitutional monarchy.
During this revolution, Britain transformed from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional democracy. It took a long time and the process was tortuous, but through this bourgeois revolution, obstacles were removed for the development of capitalism, and it also established the future development trend. The British Industrial Revolution also began to sprout.
(2) The " enclosure movement" caused the agricultural revolution, and overseas colonization further promoted capital accumulation.
Enclosure Movement
Historical experience tells us that any major event does not happen out of thin air. They all have a profound background, which reflects a long historical process. Before 1688, Britain had completed the necessary preparations for its realization of constitutionalism. It can be said that the "Glorious Revolution" was just an event that finally established British democracy in the form of law. As early as the fifteenth century, the United Kingdom had exported wool and other industrial products to the Western European continent. With the improvement of productivity, the continuous increase in wool production, the opening of new shipping routes, and the continuous expansion of overseas markets, the United Kingdom has increased its export of wool and woolen fabrics. On the other hand, the British mining and metallurgical industries also developed very well in the early stage of the revolution. It is precisely because of this that since the mid-16th century, many scattered woolen handmade workshops have been formed in Britain.
In the sixteenth century, the British countryside not only used capitalist management methods to manage farms and pastures, but also saw many light and heavy industries such as mining, metallurgy, and textiles that got rid of the shackles of the feudal guild system and established mining, metallurgy, and textiles in rural areas far away from the city. The British countryside has become the birthplace of British capitalist industry and agriculture. In addition, due to the continuous expansion of overseas trade, a large amount of gold and silver flowed into Europe. This caused the greedy British aristocratic landowners to change their original land management methods, use coercive means to expel tenant farmers, and enclose the land for sheep raising, setting off the "enclosure movement."
Later, due to the large increase in urban population and the substantial increase in commodity prices, most of the people returned to farming after land enclosure, so many large farms appeared. Although the "enclosure movement" brought endless disasters to farmers, it also intensified the destruction of the natural economic foundation of feudal land ownership . This provided a large number of hired labor for the development of British capitalist industrial and agricultural production, and accelerated the establishment of capitalist farms and the development of British industrial capitalism.
(3) The "national debt system" further promotes the primitive accumulation of capital .
British National Debt
Before the Glorious Revolution, European kings often borrowed large amounts of debt in order to finance wars . However, such debts were often defaulted due to the king's death or the king's capriciousness. Therefore, people believed that the king's credit was always unreliable and they were unwilling to lend money to the king. Compared with the king who has a limited life, the life of the parliament or the government is longer, and the promises made by the government are more reliable than the king's promises. letter. Of course, the government's commitment is not an empty promise, but is guaranteed by real tax revenue.
The large amount of wealth plundered from overseas colonies provided a guarantee for government tax revenue. The Bank of England 's initiative made the government's debt arrangements more reasonable. Under the influence of multiple favorable factors, the creditworthiness of British government bonds is getting higher and higher, and there are more and more subscribers. With a high credit rating, interest rates are naturally getting lower and lower, and the British national debt has entered a virtuous cycle mode, which has laid the foundation for Britain to dominate the world. Strong financial foundation. In contrast, countries such as France and Prussia did not have representative institutions at that time, and people did not trust the king. It was very difficult for the king to borrow money, so he had to accept usurious loans. The result of borrowing usury was frequent defaults and defaults, which made people even more distrustful of the king. However, the financial bourgeoisie obtains high interest rates, and the government only plays a leverage role, but this is also part of the original capital accumulation.
(4) Developed manual workshops and scientific and technological development The development prepared the technical conditions for the industrial revolution.
The industrial revolution first appeared in the cotton textile industry, the most developed factory handicraft industry. In 1733, machinist Kay invented the "flying shuttle", which greatly increased the speed of weaving, and the supply of spinning yarn suddenly exceeded demand. In 1765, the weaver Hargreaves invented the "Spinning Jenny". The emergence of the "Spinning Jenny" first triggered a chain reaction of machine invention and technological innovation in the cotton textile industry, kicking off the industrial revolution. Since then, in the cotton textile industry Advanced machines such as screw machines and hydraulic looms appeared. Soon, machine production began to appear in many industrial sectors such as coal mining and metallurgy. As more and more machines are produced, original power sources such as animal power, water power, and wind power can no longer meet the needs. In 1785, the improved steam engine made of Watt was put into use, which provided more convenient power and was rapidly promoted, greatly promoting the popularity and development of the machine. Human society has thus entered the " steam era ".
As machine production gradually replaced manual operations in industrial production, the traditional handicraft industry could not adapt to the needs of machine production. In order to better manage production and improve efficiency, capitalists began to build workshops, place machines and hire workers to concentrate on production. In this way, a new production organization form -factory appeared. The factory has become the most important organizational form of industrial production and plays an increasingly important role. The development of machine production has promoted the innovation of transportation. In order to transport goods and raw materials quickly and conveniently, people have tried every means to transform them. transportation.
In 1807, the steam-powered steamship made by the American Fulton succeeded in its trial voyage. In 1814, the Englishman Stephenson invented the "steam locomotive". In 1825, Stephenson personally drove a train with 34 small carriages and successfully tested it. From then on, human transportation industry entered an era powered by steam. Around 1840, large-scale machine production in Britain basically replaced traditional factory handicraft industry, and the industrial revolution was basically completed. Britain becomes the world's first an industrial country.
At the end of the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution gradually spread from Britain to Western Europe and North America. Later, it expanded to other parts of the world.
Strictly speaking, the connection between the first industrial revolution and science and technology is not as close as that of the second and third industrial revolutions. The main reason is that the starting point of the first industrial revolution is machine tools or working machines. The industrial revolution first started in the cotton textile industry. As an emerging sector, the cotton textile industry was less bound by tradition and could easily adopt new production technologies.The emergence of a large number of textile machines has made the contradiction of insufficient power more and more prominent. The use of water power as power is limited by location and season, and there is an urgent need for a convenient, practical, and more powerful engine. So Watt's steam engine came into being. Watt was an improved steam engine based on the predecessors. It, together with the conveyor and the working machine, formed the first generation of machines.
2. The Impact of the Industrial Revolution
Steam locomotives and British industrial areas
The beginning of the first industrial revolution made the British capitalist system more stable. The bourgeoisie became the biggest beneficiaries of the industrial revolution, and the wealth of the industrial bourgeoisie expanded rapidly. The strength of the industrial bourgeoisie quickly surpassed the landed aristocracy. The machine industry began to crowd out manual workshops. Population centers and industrial cities began to rise. A large number of old aristocrats followed the trend and became the emerging bourgeoisie. , The feudal landlord class gradually collapsed. At the same time, the industrial bourgeoisie opposed state interference in the economy, denied protectionism , and demanded a laissez-faire approach to economic development, leading to the rise of economic "liberalism." The industrial bourgeoisie has gradually achieved the status of the first class in politics, and has surpassed the financial bourgeoisie.
The industrial revolution promoted the great development of social productivity, and British society experienced unprecedented prosperity. By the 1850s, the British social economy had reached its peak, leading other countries in the world, and Britain held a monopoly position in world trade. The development of industrial production also gave rise to a new class - the " proletariat ". The proletariat's opposition to bourgeois exploitation began at the same time as his existence.
The Industrial Revolution transformed Britain from an economically backward country dominated by agriculture and rural areas to an economically developed country dominated by industry and cities, and began the transition from an agricultural society to an industrial society. The development of industry changed Britain's population-urban layout, with large numbers of people concentrated in industrial areas. Three-quarters of Lancashire's population increased in the second half of the 18th century. The rise of large industrial and commercial cities in the northwest attracted a large number of people and formed new population centers. From 1801 to 1831, the populations of cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Liverpool tripled. In 1851, the urban population accounted for 52% of the country's total population. It was obvious that Britain was moving towards an urban society.
British Overseas Colonial Route
In short, the impact of the Industrial Revolution was all-round. The class-economic structure of British society underwent profound changes, class antagonisms began to appear, and the proletariat appeared on the human stage as a new class. This has great historical significance for human society. However, after the completion of the Industrial Revolution, Britain accelerated its plunder of colonies on all continents. Under the slogan of "free trade," it frantically sold opium to China, laden with cheap industrially produced goods and maritime supremacy. It roamed the oceans unimpeded, forcibly opening the borders of many countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and involving them in the capitalist world market system.
