proto industrialization
The period of industrialization before the first factories came up in Europe is termed as proto-industrialization. This period was marked by merchants from towns getting products made in villages.
Reasons for focus of merchants on villages: There were powerful trade and craft guilds in urban areas. These associations controlled competition and prices and prevented entry of a new player in the market. Because of them, it was difficult for new merchants to set business in towns.
17th and 18th century:
Merchants from the towns of Europe began moving to the countryside, supplying money to peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an international market. Merchants offered advances for producing clothes for them at a time when open fields were disappearing and commons were being enclosed. Income from proto-industrial production supplemented their shrinking income from cultivation.
The Coming Up of the Factory :
- 1730s: The earliest factories in England came up.
- First symbol of the new era was cotton.
- Inventions in the 18th century increased the efficacy of each step of production (carding, twisting, spinning and rolling). The output per worker also rose.
- Richard Arkwright invented the cotton mill. Mill production of cotton started, which allowed a more careful supervision over the production process.
- Cotton became the leading sector in the first phase of industrialization.
The Pace of Industrial Change
- The expansion of railways in England and its colonies rapidly increased the demand for iron and steel.
- The new, technologically advanced industrial sectors could not easily displace the traditional industries. Textiles were still produced within domestic units and not in factories.
- The high cost of machines and the uncertainty of their performance made technological changes slow. Merchants and industrialists were cautious about accepting and using the new technology.
- 1781: James Watt improved the steam engine produced by Newcomen and patented the new engine.
