People who had survived as small farmers moved from rural to urban areas, English cities, such as Manchester and Liverpool, they would become the new
industrial workforce
Britain's Advantages Britain had many geographical advantages in
Atlantic Ocean, the country was well placed to import raw materials and expen the process of industrialization. The first of these was water. Located on the finished goods. In addition, Britain had a natural network of rivers. Before the development of railroads and trucks, water was the least expensive way to transport supplies needed by factories and the products they produced.
Beneath Britain's surface lay immense coal deposits. Burning coal was vital industrialization in multiple ways:
⚫ It powered steam engines that were used to power factories, mills, and railroads. (The importance of the steam engine is discussed later.) • It was used to separate iron from its ore. Iron production, and later steel production, allowed the building of larger bridges, taller buildings, and stronger and larger ships.
It heated spaces more efficiently than did wood. This enabled people to work in larger factories and offices that would have been difficult otherwise.
As a colonial power, Britain had access to raw materials produced in its colonies such as cotton, sugar, and timber. These colonies would also serve as markets for manufactured goods. More important than these raw materials or manufactured goods was capital, money for investments. Buying machinery or opening a factory was very expensive. Largely because of the wealth
accumulated from the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the products produced by enslaved workers, the British had a larger supply of capital than any other European country. They had money that private entrepreneurs could invest in new commercial ventures.
Finally, Great Britain industrialized quickly because it had a strong government that promoted economic growth:
⚫Britain had the world's most powerful navy. This navy could protect Britain's sea-going commercial ships and conquer and control trading ports throughout the world.
• The government added to the natural system of rivers by using money raised through taxes to build canals and harbors to facilitate trade.
• Britain's legal system protected private property. These protections gave entrepreneurs the confidence they needed to create and expand a business without fear that anyone would seize it from them.
Economic Theory
In the 17th and 18th centuries, economists began to criticize mercantilism. In the mercantile system, a country's government strictly regulated the economy through taxes and laws to increase exports and reduce imports.
Adam Smith In 1776, Adam Smith, a major economist of the Enlightenment, attacked mercantilism in a book entitled An Inquiry into the Nature and Comes of the Wealth of Nations. Instead of tightly regulating trade, Smith argued that a country's government should allow its businesspeople to compete freely. He believed that business is shaped by two natural laws the law of supply and demand and the law of competition
Read Closely: Connections To help you recall when important events happened, connect them with other events you already know. For example, in the year Adam Smith published his famous book, what event happened in the history of the United States?
written like a 8th grader and short