HISTORY :ECONOMICS
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION :PART 1
The cotton textile factory
-Every science has some instrument of precision, in chemistry the balance,in heat the thermometer,while the whole system of civilised life may be symbolised by a foot rule,aset of weights and a clock- James clerk maxwell
Till 1000AD, the centre of economic power resided in India and China .With a GDP of nearly sixty percent combined ,they dominated both crafts,agricultural output and trade. The GDP however was dependent on agricultural production and population of these nations and not on manufacturing. There was very little increase in productivity over centuries and therefore per capita incomes remained stagnant.
It should be noted that per capita income can only increase with technological advancement and increase in productivity in economy and not by investment.Taking an example if there are two sectors) in a economy with sector A producing ten candles daily with ten units of labour and sectorB producing ten matchboxes with ten units of labour. One day we can decide to invest five more units of labour in sector B to produce fifteen matchboxes.But since productivity is constant there will be less units of labour to produce candles and only five candles will be produced. If instead productivity of producing matchbox had increased and each labour can now make two of the same there would be increase in total matchboxplus candles.
Another source of increase in GDP is balance of trade of exports over imports of a nation. Human society is based on exchange as it gives rise to opportunity cost advantage. Suppose a farmer can produce 1kg of potatoes in 10 hours and 1kg of meat in 20hours. . A rancher can produce the above 1kg in 8hrs and 1hour respectively. The rancher is of course more productive than the farmer and has no need to exchange any product with him. However the rancher has a very large comparative advantage in meat production while much less in potato production. So if he only produces meat and no potatoes and exchanges his meat with potato produced by the farmer he has used opportunity cost.
The commercial revolution in Europe
Western Europe has a very uneven coastline and no place inside is more than one hundred kilometers from the coast. This fascilitated sea trade within the region and led to increased specialization and exports. This started happening in Europe around 1000AD as the feudal system started weakening.Trade was boosted further by the discovery of compass, navigation maps,and shipbuilding. The printing of books and maps led to spread of knowledge and trade routes all over Western Europe. The discovery of gunpowder,cannons allowed Europeans to forcibly capture trade routes to Asia and America and soon huge exchange of goods took place between Europe Asia and America leading to a commercial revolution. The commercial revolution took place as early as 13century in Europe and it took advantage of the resulting opportunity cost advantage to increase national incomes. The kingdoms supported the merchants as trade was a huge source of taxes required to fund their wars.The Europeans had developed a sense of nationhood ,probably due to spread of historical narratives through print media. These new nations were constantly at war with each other and in the process developed advanced guns and organized military. This military technology allowed them in capturing colonies in Asia and America for trade.By the end of 17 th century all countries of Europe had a higher per capita income than Asian countries. Of them Britain had the highest trade due to having defeated the other European nations and captured the trade routes to India,China,and America.
Trade in a static agricultural ecosystem initially occurs in villages. Because the households generally produce their own food, stitch their clothes and are generally self sufficient they depend on village craftsmen or shopkeeper for their few needs. As regional trade grows intervillage traders arise . At confluence of trade routes cities develop which house large traders .These traders initially do not specialize and trade in all goods needed by the population.When trade becomes long range over continents specialized traders arise dealing in spices,cotton. Their trade requires finance and banking instruments and stock trading occurs for pooling risks.Due to massive increase in trade with colonies specialized traders,banks, stock markets had arisen in Europe by 17th century.Morever crafts and manufacturing of simple goods comprised forty percent of GDP of Britain. The increased volume of trade and higher income created demand for these goods manufactured by guilds of craftsmen. The guilds had many restrictictions on production and workers. Howevever large traders started buying goods from many guilds and even households and even provided raw materials to them. This broke the guild restrictions and freed manufacturing. Another innovation to increase production was plantations where a specialized plant was grown over a large scale. This began taking place in the colonies where indentured labourers or slaves were used on a massive scale.
The first Industrial Revolution
In every economy craftsmen possess knowledge of producing essential goods and in Europe the tradition of producing these culminated in Middle Ages in production of clocks,wndmills ,water powered mills .Clock production involves use of principles of gears,wheel and these are the basics of mechanical engineering and machines. During 17thcentury due to rise in income of population the demand for manufactured goods had increased. Simultaneously the craftsmen working in cities started innovating their equipment based on their knowledge of constructing tools.
England had been a centre for wool production but these were exported to the Netherlands for manufacturing clothes. With rise in income and local demand woollen clothes started being made in England ,but by individual craftsmen. By this time Britain had captured the trade in cotton textiles from India and these were in great demand in Europe. The British craftsmen tried to copy spinning ,weaving from Indian craftsmen but the quality of clothes produced remained poor. Then John Kay invented the flying shuttle in 1733 which used a mechanical device to speed up weaving. In 1738 Lewis paul invented a spinning machine,Arkwright invented in 1769 the waterframe and divided spinning into a number of stages each of which could be mechanized. Initially these machinery used horse or water power. Later it shifted to steam power.
The inventions in textile manufacturing speeded up the mechanization of the process. However the power source to run it was still inadequate and mills had to be located near streams where water power could be used to run them. Meanwhile while searching for a mechanism to evacuate water from mines the concept of steam engine came and Newcomen in 1712 installed the first steam engine in Conegree coal mine to lift water . Newcomen was an educated person though not a scientist. He used the concept of condensation that when steam condenses on cooling it creates a vacuum. This vacuum can drive a machine cyclically if connected from boiler by a piston. The scientific principles of Thermodynamics were not known at this time and practical knowledge of steam led to the invention.James watt in 1775 perfected the steam engine and now factories need not be located near water sources for power.
The mechanization of cotton textiles led the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Soon raw cotton imports ,principally from America increased fifty times and cotton textiles was the dominant exports of Britain. However other manufacturing industries stimulated by the cotton industry also started growing. The demand for iron grew as wooden machinery or steam engines were not durable. Earlier village blacksmiths used charcoal to smelt iron. But to produce iron on a large scale required coal and soon this was used extensively. Henry cort invented the ‘puddling process’ in 1784 and this was the origin of cast iron which was much better for producing iron equipment.The other development occured in chemical and dyeing of clothes such as use of sulphuric acid for bleaching. The construction of factories required large buildings and here use was made of Newtonian mechanics of forces ,beams to construct them.
Ack: The empire of cotton,The first Industrial Revolution,Wheels clocks and rockets,
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