Transcript

The Origins of the Industrial Revolution

During the Long Nineteenth Century, Britain had several advantages that
allowed it to industrialize first. What were they? Nick Dennis travels to
England to mine for answers.
Transcript
The Origins of the Industrial Revolution

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00:01 The Industrial Revolution was probably one of the greatest transformations in
human history. Arguably, it has changed how humans live more than any event
Nick Dennis in an since the Agricultural Revolution. Industrialization—producing goods on a scale
industrial factory beyond what could be made in the home—has helped to shape the kind of work
A black and white photo we do today. It led to fewer farmers, fewer artisans, and more people in wage
of women working in an paid jobs in factories, or in jobs that support factories. It changed where we live,
early industrial factory moving us from rural villages or small towns into apartments and houses and big
cities. And it even influenced how our days are structured. The school bell and
Drawing of a city market; the factory whistle and shift work reshaped our understanding of time. It gave us
Drawing of an industrial a world of mass-produced stuff, from clothing, to tools, to iPhones, all obtainable
city filled with billows of only with money we earn from our industrial jobs. And increasingly it affects the
pollution very air we breathe and the water we drink.

01:05 And since the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century, these changes have
happened more rapidly and spread to more places around the world. How did the
Map of Northern England Industrial Revolution begin? To answer that question, we are going to focus on the
region where it all started: northern England. It was here that the coal-fired steam
engine, the textile factory, and the other elements of modern industrialization first
all came together in the mid-18th century.

01:35 But why was this part of England specifically at the heart of these incredible
and turbulent transformations? I’m here at the Caphouse Colliery, at the National
Coal and Environmental Coal Mining Museum, to begin the search for answers to that question. This
Factors is a colliery—a mine from which coal is extracted. Coal fueled the Industrial
Video footage of the Revolution; it was coal that made new steam engines possible, and it was these
Caphouse Colliery and new steam engines that powered industrial factories, trains, and steam ships. The
the National Coal Mining first steam engines were rudimentary and were not invented in Britain. They were
Museum first invented in China, some hundred years before the Industrial Revolution.
A drawing of an early
Chinese steam engine

02:13 So why did steam-powered industrialization take off in Britain, and not China?
Some historians argue Britain had a unique set of environmental factors that made
coal-fired steam power cheap and easy here. First, Britain had very large coal
deposits. The coal was also quite near the surface—that means they were easy
to mine with 18th-century technology. The only problem was that these mines
sometimes filled up with water, but steam engines solved that problem.

A drawing: “Thomas The first steam engines in England, which were very inefficient, were, in fact, used
Newcomen’s engine for to pump water out of coal mines. They were so inefficient, that they were only
draining a mine, 1712” useful in a place where coal was pretty much free, at the head of the mines. In
addition, British coal mines were close to cities where factories and cheap labor
to work in them were in ready supply. Finally, Britain is quite flat, which made it
possible to build canals to connect the cities to the coal.

03:11 I’m here with Alan and Taz, 459 feet and two and a half inches underground to find
out about the importance of coal, and what life was like for miners.
Nick Dennis with Alan and
Taz, two men who work in NICK: So why was coal important for the Industrial Revolution in Britain?
the coal mines, at the

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The Origins of the Industrial Revolution

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Caphouse Colliery
TAZ: Well, they discovered it could make steam. There’s no steam without coal. Coal
was important, and obviously steam, it were used to generate pumps, steam engines
to wind men in and out of [the] mine. The first cars were steam, yeah? So it’s been a
massive part of this country’s history, and helped to make it what it is today. Without
coal and steam, well, this country wouldn’t be as great as what it is today.

03:51 NICK: So how was the coal taken out of the mine, and where did it go?

ALAN: Well, in early days, it were taken out [of the] mine by manual labor. Women,
Footage of the museum children, anybody that needed employment were employed in the mines.
shows sculptures of people
working in the mines; a TAZ: In the early days, when they started getting into what you’d call, you might
drawing of an 18th century think’s a deep mine at 140 meters, there were a bucket, big bucket called the cable,
coal mine yeah, that would be lowered down to load it up, and then they’d have a horse on
a rope, going around a wheel gin, which lifted the coal. Slow process but, still
managed to get it out.

ALAN: Then obviously they started shallow, and then they went deeper and deeper
as technology progressed. The turning point was steam power, really. ‘Cuz the
coal burnt in steam boilers to produce steam power, which then motivated the
production of coal—just, we could pump water out [of] the ground, and we could
go deeper and deeper into thicker and more productive seams.

04:51 NICK: The availability of coal wasn’t the only reason that Britain was uniquely
suited to industrialization. For better or for worse, Britain was a nation with a long
Textile and Trade history of trade. In particular, Britain had been in the textile industry for centuries,
raising sheep, turning their wool into cloth, and selling that cloth to Europe and the
A painting depicts people wider world. In 1700, about 70% of British exports were woolen products, so it
shearing sheep and was a short but significant step from the kinds of small-scale textile production in
working with their wool the pre-industrial era, to the large textile mills of the industrial era.

05:29 I’ve come to Nottingham, in the Midlands of England, to find out more about the
role of textiles in the development of the Industrial Revolution. I’m here at the Lace
Reproduction of a steam Hall with Richard Brawn.
engine
NICK: So Richard, what kinds of textiles were produced here in Nottingham?
Nick stands in the Lace
Hall, an industrial lace RICHARD: Lace—mainly lace. After 200 lace factories, [there’s] only one actually
factory, with Richard running still in Nottingham.
Brawn NICK: So how was the lace produced before the Industrial Revolution?

A photograph of women RICHARD: Most likely by hand. Then they produced the machine, which, you had to
sewing lace by hand power it yourself, moving pedals and things like this. Then they produced the first
Video footage of a lace lace machine which was powered by a shaft driven by steam engine. And then
machine in action after that it went from steam engine to an electric motor.

06:14 NICK: Beyond commodities, Britain had finance. Partly because of the long history
of textile production, Britain had lots of merchants and other people who financed
Finance, Wages, and and made money from trade.
Property Rights
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These people became increasingly powerful in British government over many

Drawing of the Bank of centuries. As a result, by the 18th century, British laws were very friendly to those
England, painted depiction in industry and trade. The country had a number of banks that supported new
of Parliament industrial ventures, and there were lots of laws to protect private property. The
availability of finance and legal protections encouraged people in England to take
risks, and invest in new enterprises like factories. Some of the most important
A drawing of an 1837 of the new laws were patent laws, which protected people’s rights to profit from
patent for a steam engine their new inventions, such as the machines that run the collieries and mills.

A chart shows laborers’ Another reason that factory owners in England adopted machines so rapidly, was
wages around the world; because wages were so high here, compared to many other parts of the world. As
wages in London are a result, it was too expensive to hire lots of people, so business owners looked for
significantly higher. ways to save money by having machines do the work, instead. You might consider
the rise of AI and robots that do the work of humans today, pretty similar thinking.

07:29 Some historians think that Britain’s industrialization wasn’t principally a result
of these internal factors at all, but rather, really, a result of its place in global
Empire and Trade networks of trade, and at the head of a vast empire. The list of global contributions
to industrialization proposed by historians is a long one. Some historians argue
Artwork depicts slave that profits made from the trade in enslaved Africans, and their labor on Caribbean
labor on plantations and in plantations, helped fund technological innovations like the steam engine. Others
homes point out that food grown or fished in the American colonies by settlers, often
taught by indigenous people, flooded into Britain, allowing people there to
Drawing of a British man concentrate on factory work rather than farming. Similarly, natural resources
on a horse looking over flowed into Britain from their colonies. Timber and cotton were particularly
workers that are cutting important, but also the colonies were a captive market for British industrial
down trees for timber products, once British factories began to produce them.

08:25 All of these factors—money, food, resources and markets—may well have spurred
industrialization in Britain, first. The Industrial Revolution helped to make Britain
a global power and create the largest territorial Empire in history. Slavery, the
exploitation of workers at home and abroad, and questionable trade arrangements
were fueled by technology, personal ingenuity, geography, and the laws of the land.
The term ‘Industrial Revolution’ can hide these unique elements coming together,
that not only changed the lives of everyone involved, but also the lives of everyone
who came after.