The crazy colonial plunder and slave trade brought huge amounts of monetary capital to Britain, thus accumulating financial preparations for the Industrial Revolution. From the 16th century to the 19th century, Britain continued its land enclosure movement for nearly three centuries, providing a large number of cheap labor for the Industrial Revolution. Moreover, Britain used to borrow debts in the name of the king to make up for the shortcomings of the palace's financial operations. The establishment of the National Bank of England in 1694 marked the transition from the king's debt system to the national debt system, which accumulated funds for the Industrial Revolution from another channel.
The British government vigorously develops overseas colonies, actively implements the protective tariff system, and seeks overseas markets for its industry and commerce. At the same time, most of the wealth accumulated from various channels is used as productive investment to convert it into reproductive capital. France, on the other hand, used all its funds to maintain its expensive army and court enjoyment, and Spain used the huge wealth exploited from overseas trade to purchase cheap foreign goods, which impacted its own market.
The Industrial Revolution replaced manual labor with machine production, which was a leap from manual workshops to large machine factories. The reason why this leap can be achieved is closely related to the high development of handicrafts. Therefore, the high development of handicrafts is an indispensable technical prerequisite for the industrial revolution. In addition, in pursuit of more profits, Britain paid enthusiastic attention to the development of production, thus stimulating the invention of machines and the use of new science and technology.
As early as the fifteenth century, half-agricultural and half-worker rural cottage industries were very common in Britain, initially mainly woolen textile industry. This family wool spinning handicraft industry later changed as the farmers became richer and poorer. Many cottage craftsmen became wage laborers processing raw materials for merchants. As a result, woolen merchants gradually connected separate cottage industries, forming handicraft workshops in the woolen textile industry. There are two types of manual workshops: decentralized and centralized.
In the sixteenth century, scattered manual workshops dominated. As more and more farmers lost their land due to the enclosure movement, concentrated handicraft workshops founded by big businessmen gradually developed, reaching a scale that employed more than a thousand workers. By the seventeenth century, craft workshops employing several hundred workers were common. These handicraft workshops are not limited to the wool textile industry. Large handicraft workshops have been established in mining, metallurgy, salt making, paper making, glass, saltpeter making, beer and other sectors.
The development of British factory handicraft industry is not only reflected in the expansion of production scale, but also in terms of huge technological progress. The advancement of production technology in British handicraft workshops is closely related to the migration of a large number of craftsmen from the European continent to Britain. At the end of the Middle Ages, countries such as France and the Netherlands were more advanced than Britain in handicraft technology, especially silk weaving technology, and had many skilled craftsmen. However, the continuous religious wars forced many skilled craftsmen who believed in Protestantism to flee to England for refuge.
When Spain suppressed the Dutch Revolution at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, a large number of Dutch craftsmen fled to Britain and settled in eastern Britain ever since. At that time, Queen Elizabeth of England allowed these craftsmen to settle down, on the condition that each foreign craftsman must be responsible for training an English apprentice. The influx of these skilled craftsmen into Britain played a great role in improving and innovating British handicraft technology, and enabled the creation of some new industrial sectors in Britain that had not existed in the past. The development of the British dyeing and weaving industry, the sugar industry, and the ceramics industry is inseparable from the contributions of Dutch craftsmen.
Among the various industrial sectors established and developed after the seventeenth century, the cotton textile industry developed particularly rapidly. At the beginning of the 18th century, only one million pounds of cotton was shipped to Britain for processing. However, with the expansion of domestic and foreign markets, the production of manual workshops could no longer meet the needs of the market. In order to pursue more and more profits, in addition to adding more workers to expand the scale of production, capitalists are eager to reform production technology to improve labor productivity.
In 1733, machinist John Kay invented the flying shuttle.
After Kay invented the flying shuttle, one weaver could do the work of two workers, doubling the efficiency. Later, Kay's son improved it and invented an automatic up and down box, which was more convenient to use and improved the weaving ability. As weaving efficiency increased, an extremely serious yarn shortage occurred.
Due to insufficient supply of cotton yarn, conflicts arose between spinning and weaving. This contradiction has not been resolved for a long time, and some cotton factories have stopped production due to lack of yarn. The price of cotton yarn rose sharply, followed by an increase in the wages of spinners. This situation is intolerable to profit-seeking capitalists. In order to solve the problem of insufficient cotton yarn, the government has also taken various measures. In 1761, the British "Art and Industrial Award Society" offered two rewards for the invention of a new spinning machine.
In 1764, James Hargreaves in Lancashire invented the spinning jenny. The invention of the Jenny spinning machine was a huge leap in cotton textile technology, which rapidly increased the output of cotton yarn, caused a series of changes in the textile industry, and had a huge social impact. As the production cost of cotton yarn decreases, the price of cloth also decreases, thereby increasing the demand for cloth, which requires more weavers.
As the wages of weavers increased with the increase in the demand for cotton cloth, weavers who were originally engaged in agriculture gradually abandoned agriculture and became a working class who relied solely on wage income. At the same time, the use of the Jenny machine displaced the old spinning wheels, causing those spinners who were originally engaged in cottage industry who could not afford the Jenny machine to give up agriculture and go to work for those who owned the Jenny machine, thus becoming wage workers. The land abandoned by spinners and weavers was bought by agricultural capitalists. Small farmers were unable to compete with large capitalist farms. After they were gradually squeezed out and went bankrupt, they became proletarians in agriculture or industry.
Although the Jenny spinning machine greatly increased the output of cotton yarn, the yarn spun was not strong, thin and easy to break. As more and more sand spindles were driven by the Jenny machine, the spinning wheel needed to be rotated manually, making it increasingly difficult for manpower to do the job. Therefore, improvements in quality and power are needed. In 1769, watchmaker Richard Arkwright invented the water-powered spinning machine. This kind of machine is driven by water power. There are many rollers installed on the machine. It rotates very quickly and the yarn spun has a tough texture.
Because the water-powered spinning machine is large in size and must be set up in a place where water power can be used, it cannot be installed in the home like the old spinning wheel or Jenny machine. Instead, a factory building must be built and workers can be concentrated. Production. In this way, the foundation was laid for the establishment of the factory system. In 1771, Arkwright established the first cotton spinning mill and became the first factory owner to use machine production. The yarn spun on a water-powered spinning machine is strong but rough. Therefore, there is a need to continue technological innovation to improve the quality of cotton yarn.
In 1779, worker Samuel Crompton invented the mule machine. The mule machine combines the advantages of the Jenny spinning machine and the water-powered spinning machine, and the cotton yarn spun is both strong and fine. In addition, the efficiency of spinning was also improved. Initially, the mule machine drove twenty or thirty spindles. Later, as the machine improved, the number gradually increased. By the end of the 18th century, there was a spinning machine capable of driving four hundred spindles. Since the invention and widespread use of the mule machine, the number of spinning factories focused on production has increased rapidly.
The substantial increase in cotton yarn production left weaving behind, and a new disconnect emerged between spinning and weaving. Under these circumstances, there was an urgent need to improve looms. In 1785, the Reverend Edmund Cartwright invented the water-powered loom. However, this kind of machine was very clumsy and not widely sold. Later, after improvements by Radcliffe, Horrocks and others, this loom became increasingly perfect and gradually popularized.
In 1803, Radcliffe also invented a cloth-making machine, and Horrocks invented an iron weaving machine. The improved automatic loom is forty times more efficient than manual weaving. The use of machines in the cotton textile industry triggered a chain reaction in other industries. Soon, many industrial sectors such as coal mining and metallurgy began to produce machines.
As more and more industrial sectors have realized mechanization, a new topic is before people, which is the problem of power.
As we all know, when water is heated, it expands into water vapor. In fact, people have known this truth for a long time. Around the end of the second century BC, Hero of Alexandria recognized the power of steam. In his writings, it is recorded that he once made a toy that used water vapor to rotate. During the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci attempted to design a drawing for using steam to operate a cannon. However, experiments in using steam as power for industrial purposes only began in modern times.
French physicist Nice Parbon can be regarded as the first experimenter of steam power. In 1680, he successfully tested the first steam pump in England that could convert thermal energy into mechanical energy. However, Pabong's invention was not actually used in industry. In 1698, the Englishman Thomas Seville invented a water pump using steam power, but it was not strong enough to withstand the pressure of large amounts of steam and often broke. In 1705, blacksmith Thomas Newcomen improved on the Seville pump and created the first steam pump that could actually be used as power.
When Watt was working as a manufacturer and repairer of natural science instruments at the University of Glasgow, he noticed that the Newcomen steam engine wasted a lot of heat and time because both steam and cold water had to be injected into the cylinder. . In the spring of 1765, Watt finally came up with a solution to the problem. After installing an isolated condenser device, the steam is not cooled and solidified in the cylinder, but the steam is allowed to pass through a valve and enter a separate condenser that is kept cool. This way, there is no need to lower the temperature of the cylinder, and vacuum can be continuously generated. .
In 1769, Watt built the first steam engine. This year, Watt obtained his first patent in the process of innovating the Newcomen steam engine for his invention of the separating condenser. However, this kind of steam engine still cannot overcome the shortcomings of the Newcomen steam engine that only makes reciprocating motion, and cannot turn the steam engine into a prime mover that can drive various working machines. In 1781, Watt developed a gear linkage device that could convert the reciprocating linear motion of the piston into the rotational motion of the axle, for which he obtained his second patent.
Next, in order to further improve efficiency and increase the power of the steam engine, Watt analyzed and studied the cylinder itself. In 1782, Watt trial-produced a new cylinder with a two-way device, assembled the original one-way cylinder into a two-way cylinder, and changed the steam introduced into the cylinder from low-pressure steam to high-pressure steam for the first time, and he also achieved his third invention. patent.
In 1784, the steam engine was improved again. It was not only suitable for various mechanical movements, but also added a device to automatically adjust the speed of the steam engine. In 1785, a spinning mill using Watt's steam engine was built. Soon, steam engines were widely used in industrial sectors such as cotton textile industry, wool textile industry, mining industry, metallurgy industry, paper industry, printing industry, and ceramic industry.
The advent of the Watt steam engine solved the power problem in industrial development. From then on, as long as coal was available as fuel, steam engines could be started. Moreover, factories were built according to needs and were no longer limited by the water power of rivers. Marx said: "Watt's great genius is reflected in the description of the patent he obtained in April 1784. He did not describe his steam engine as an invention for special purposes, but described it as a universal invention for large industry. Application engine. ”
The invention of the steam engine enabled mechanized production to break through the limitations of natural conditions. It was a sign that human society had entered the mechanization era, thus greatly accelerating the process of the industrial revolution. The widespread use of steam engines led to an upsurge in the invention and use of machines, prompting the vigorous development of the Industrial Revolution.
Large factories were built everywhere in the UK. Those towering chimneys spewed out plumes of smoke, and the huge factory buildings roared, breaking the tranquility of the original medieval pastoral life. With this as a sign, history has entered a new era, and human society has entered the steam age.
Coal can be said to be the food of modern industry. Without coal, there would be no development of large machine industry and no industrial revolution. It is precisely because Britain's coal reserves are so abundant that it supported the vigorous development of the British Industrial Revolution. In the Middle Ages, feudal rulers strictly prohibited coal mining because burning coal polluted the air. However, due to the rise of the Industrial Revolution, Britain's demand for coal expanded and the coal industry developed rapidly. In 1846, Britain's annual coal output reached 44 million tons, making it the largest coal producer in Europe and even the world.
As machine production gradually replaces manual operations in industrial production, traditional manual workshops cannot adapt to the needs of machine production. In order to better manage production and improve efficiency, capitalists began to build factories, install machines, and hire workers. Workers centralized production, and in this way, a new form of production organization, the factory, emerged. The factory has become the most important organizational form of industrial production and plays an increasingly important role.
Around 1840, large machine production in Britain had basically replaced the factory handicraft industry, and the machine manufacturing industry that used machines to make machines was also established. The industrial revolution was basically completed, and Britain became the first industrial country in the world. The widespread use of machines has fundamentally changed the technical landscape of industry and greatly improved labor productivity. The great development of productivity caused by the Industrial Revolution brought unprecedented prosperity to Britain.