2. LEQ: What key factors allowed Britain
to lead the way in the Industrial
Revolution?
3. A number of characteristics made Britain ripe for
industrialization in the eighteenth century.
• Natural ports
Britain had
plentiful natural • Navigable rivers
resources, • Water for canals
including:
• Access to the sea
• A plentiful supply of coal
• Vast supplies of iron
5. In the 1700s, Britain had skilled inventors,
a ready workforce, and a growing population.
To meet the
growing demand
Money to
for jobs and
start new
products, one
businesses.
more thing was
needed.
6. • capital – money to invest in enterprises
• enterprise – a business organization in an area such as shipping, mining,
railroads, or factories
• entrepreneur – someone who manages and assumes the financial risks of
starting a new business
Entrepreneurs needed capital, or money to invest,
in business enterprises such as shipping, mining,
and manufacturing.
With a healthy
From the A business
economy, many
mid-1600s, class had
were now willing
England had accumulated
to risk their
prospered the needed
money on new
from trade. capital.
ventures.
7. Britain had additional advantages.
• Britain had a stable government that
supported economic growth.
• Other countries had river tolls, but Britain
had no such barriers.
• The powerful British navy protected shipping
and overseas trade.
8. • putting-out system – cottage industry; raw cotton was
distributed to peasant families, who spun it into thread and then
wove the thread
into cloth in their homes
In the 1600s, cotton cloth from India became
popular in Britain. Using the putting-out system,
merchants began a cotton cloth industry in Britain.
Merchants gave cotton to Skilled artisans
peasant families, who spun in towns then
thread and wove cloth at finished and
home as a cottage industry. dyed the cloth.
9. The demand for cotton cloth products, or textiles,
made it Britain’s largest industry.
The putting-out
system was too New inventions would
slow to meet the help to increase and
growing demand speed up production.
for cotton cloth.
10. • The flying shuttle sped
up weaving.
• The spinning jenny spun
several threads at once.
• The water frame used
water to power the
process.
John Kay’s flying shuttle, 1733
11. • Eli Whitney – in 1793, invented the cotton gin, which sped
up the previously time-consuming job of separating cotton
fibers from cotton seeds
• It took a long time to
But the new separate cotton fibers
machines posed from the cotton seeds,
a problem. How limiting production.
could farmers
provide enough • In 1793 an American,
cotton to meet Eli Whitney, invented
English demand? the cotton gin, which
quickly did the job.
• Cotton production soon
increased exponentially.
12. Machines were too large to
The new put in peasant homes, so
machines they were placed in large
doomed the sheds along swift-moving
putting-out rivers, which provided power.
system. Workers came to labor in
these factories.
Factories brought together workers and
machinery to produce large quantities of goods.
13. • turnpike – private road built by an entrepreneur who charged
travelers a toll, or fee, for use
As production increased, cheaper ways were
needed to move products.
Some entrepreneurs invested in turnpikes.
Products traveled faster on these roads.
England was soon linked by a series of roads.
14. • Canals were dug to
Factory owners link rivers or to
needed still connect inland towns
more efficient to coastal ports.
and inexpensive
ways to move • Engineers designed
goods. stronger bridges and
upgraded harbors.
15. In 1763, the The owners This success
Bridgewater profited from set off a
canal was the tolls, while canal-building
opened. the price of frenzy.
coal in the city
of Manchester
was cut in half.
16. • Liverpool to Manchester – site of the world's first major rail
line in 1830
Railroads did not have to follow rivers, allowing the
shipment of goods efficiently and quickly over land.
The Liverpool to Railroad lines
Manchester line crisscrossed
opened in 1830. It England, Europe,
began a railroad- and the United
building boom. States by 1870.
17. The new technology set off a cycle that
dramatically affected how people lived.
Lower prices created
More affordable
more consumers and
goods caused still
greater demand.
lower prices.
Greater demand led to new inventions
and still more affordable goods.
18. LEQ: What key factors allowed Britain
to lead the way in the Industrial
Revolution?
Natural and human resources, technological
inventions, demands for goods due to increased
population, access to capital, social and political
conditions, creation of factories, and better
transportation
