Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution
  Why was England better suited for industrial growth than continental Europe?
    England was better suited for industrial growth because its agriculture was much more commercialized than the rest of Europe. Farming in England had been transformed by new techniques and new crops. They also began to enclose their fields and pastures, which gave rise to farm lands privately owned by commercial land lords. Commercialized agriculture produced higher profits that were invested in industry as well as more food, which encouraged the growth of an urban population. This agricultural climate also drove small farmers to seek employment in order fields. Another reason why England was much more ready for industrial growth than the rest of Europe was that coal was relatively abundant in England. Coal mines were situated near rivers where they could be transport easily to the urban centers of London and elsewhere. But they soon exhausted the coal on the surface of the mines, and deeper veins were necessary to reach more coal. These mine shafts soon went so deep that they started to fill with water from underground. In 1711, Thomas Newcomen devised a steam engine to pump the water out of the mines. It was further improved by James Watt, and his contribution to Newcomen's design allowed the steam engine to be useful in other industries. This British innovation lead to the”steam-driven locomotive” and railroads went on to “revolutionize industry, markets, public and private financing, and ordinary people's conception of space and time” (). Britain's invention of the steam engine was possible due to the great profits they were making from their commercialized agriculture as well as their social and cultural climate; Britain’s wealthy people were eager to invest in talented commoners. Because Britain was a small island, a highly domestic market developed and without a “system of internal tolls and tariffs” like the rest of Europe, people were able to...