Divine Mingiedi M00449801
Ms Maja Savic
ECS2295; International Business and Globalisation
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What brought rapid technological progress and first industrial revolution to 18th century Britain?

In week 1 of our lecture, we were taught about the First Industrial Revolution in 18th century Britain, and what made Britain stand out amongst the other first world countries. Here is my understanding of the question: before the First Industrial Revolution began, I think that there was a big distinction between the upper class and the lower class. The lower class citizens (who worked as servants) had to work in large, lengthy fields that belonged to the Aristocrats (upper class). In addition to working on the fields, the servants were also made to do housekeeping and take care of the Aristocrats’ children. Although there was a divide between the two classes, they had to work together in order to produce their goods. The Putting Out system was invented; this consisted in buying raw materials and going through these stages of production: spinning, weaving, filling and dyeing etc. It was a cheap and quick way for entrepreneurs to produce wool. At the time, there were hardly any forms of transport, which meant that workers had to walk for miles and had to carry heavy raw materials to produce at the cottage farms. The putting out system was proven to be a success, and was spreading throughout England.

As more people started to adopt this approach, the demand for more wool grew. This was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Production had to be much quicker amongst the workers, the workers wanted increases in their wages, and the business relationship between the entrepreneurs and cottage producers was becoming sour. More people longed for machines to quicken the fabric production, however wool was a difficult material to work on a machine. This is what