The hallmarks of industrialisation
- Thread starter RedRalph
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Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
Mass production. The exchange of commodities, and the social relations therein implied.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Would it be worth adding "mechanisation of labour" to that, or is that implicit in "mass production"?
The energy applied to production does not all come from muscle power. Machines are made which harness other energy sources to do much of the brute work. After that, each worker, being not wholly dependent on their own physical strength, or the strength of domesticated animals, can produce much more value and output from their work. Water mills and wind mills are of ancient origin. But there were limits to what could be done with them before other sciences caught up. So industry was small scale and dispersed. Once improvements in sciences and metallurgy got to the right point, much better machines could be invented to harness those energy sources. But it really took off with the steam engine. Now not only was their vastly more energy available, but it could be sited nearly anywhere, and not just where natural conditions were favorable.
This creates a feedback loop. More energy available leads to more opportunities for profits, which leads to more money being spent to improve the machines.
This creates a feedback loop. More energy available leads to more opportunities for profits, which leads to more money being spent to improve the machines.
RedRalph
Deity
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That's one factor, but I think urbanisation is a bigger one.
I think that the rise of the Enlightenment opened doors that would not have been opened before. The fall of peasantry meant greater labor mobility. The fall of the aristocracy meant that commoners could rise to their level of wealth. These opened opportunities. The rise of banking meant that these new business people could get loans to increase their business.
All of these are pieces of a whole.
But you don't have broad scale industrialization until you have steam, coal, and good metals.
This is a very French explanation
Meaning?
Meaning that it fits into the historical model most frequently applied to European industrialization back in the day, stemming from the French example of an Enlightenment-spurred revolution that cleared away the old aristos and allowed capis to seize control of the means of production, while French capital investment institutions that happened to develop roughly at the same time permitted the more effective use of that capital in stimulating industrial growth. Many of your "parts of the whole" don't apply to other societies industrializing in, say, the 19th century, like the United Kingdom, Germany, the Habsburg empire, Russia, and Japan, not to mention the United States. To say that there was a kind of normal experience of industrialization is essentially committing the mistake of the Sonderweg, or of bog-standard Marxist historiography. 
Meaning that it fits into the historical model most frequently applied to European industrialization back in the day, stemming from the French example of an Enlightenment-spurred revolution that cleared away the old aristos and allowed capis to seize control of the means of production, while French capital investment institutions that happened to develop roughly at the same time permitted the more effective use of that capital in stimulating industrial growth. Many of your "parts of the whole" don't apply to other societies industrializing in, say, the 19th century, like the United Kingdom, Germany, the Habsburg empire, Russia, and Japan, not to mention the United States. To say that there was a kind of normal experience of industrialization is essentially committing the mistake of the Sonderweg, or of bog-standard Marxist historiography.
Sure, many can copy. Who leads?
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
In this case? Britain.
Different people in different states in different fields at different times.
Different people in different states in different fields at different times.
Sure. All, or nearly so, the pieces existed in different times and places. Mechanical energy from wind and water dates back to ancient times. Banking existed in the West 4-600 years ago, perhaps earlier. I've never heard that banking existed in the nations of Asia that were advanced before Europe's Renaissance, did it? Good quality steel existed in India at least 1500 years ago. Large scale iron working in China at least 600 years ago.There was great learning in the Middle East between the fall of Rome and the rise of Europe. Though at different times and places those skills were lost, or at least did not travel well to other lands.
But where, and under what conditions, did it all finally come together in the world changing Industrial Revolution?
Of course, once something is shown to work and others can see it, they can copy it without all of the pieces needed to create it in the first place.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
...Birmingham?
