EURO1004 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Common External Tariff, Thomas Newcomen, Labour Power
WEEK 7 – Industrialising Europe
Textbook reading: 'The industrialisation of Europe and its effects', in William Simpson
and Martin Jones (eds),
Europe: 1783-1914
, Third edition (London and New York:
Routledge, 2015), pp. 101-20.
CH 7: THE INDUSTRIALISATION OF EUROPE AND ITS EFFECTS
Section A
•
Economic change:
- The term ‘industrial revolution’ first came into general use in the 1840s and has
described as the transformation of an economy based primarily on agriculture to
one based on manufacturing industry
- ‘Revolution’ suggests an overwhelming and rapid change, and implies a once and
for all occurrence, rather than a continuing process. However it is clear that once
the industrial revolution had began there would be no end to its progress
- There are numerous problems in charting economic change:
o Many vital indices
such as industrial output
are not available until the mid-
nineteenth century at the earliest
o Crude measurements of total output per head may give some idea of how
fast a country is growing, but they may ignore the small but vital qualitative
changes that are taking place in particular sectors of the economy
•
Population growth:
- The fundamental characteristic shared by most European countries in the
nineteenth century was the continuing growth in population
- Europe’s population rose from 150 million to 400 million between 1750 and 1900
- One of the consequences of this rise in population was a continued migration from
Europe to other countries → between 1821 and 1924, 55 million Europeans
emigrated
- A rising population also provided an increasing source of consumer demand and a
ready supply of labour for the new industries
•
The main areas of industrial growth in Britain:
- The first industrial revolution was characterised by developments in a few key
industries:
o
E.g. Textiles, coal, iron, steel, engineering
o In most cases improvements in productivity and production were achieved
by a combination of technological improvements and mobilisation of the
factors of production: land, labour and capital
-
E.g. the first efficient steam engines were designed and built by Thomas
Newcomen, and were used for pumping water out of mines or into reservoirs
- Most of these inventions at this time were British, and the commonly held view that
the industrial revolution began in Britain and then spread to the continent is
substantially correct:
o In 1850 Britain’s production of pig iron was three times greater than
France, Belgium and Germany’s combined as was Britain’s cotton spinning
capacity
o Britain had twice the steam power capacity of these countries and its
railway mileage also exceeded the other countries.
•
Industrial growth in Europe
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- Where Britain led, other countries followed, as if they didn’t their own production
wouldn’t be able to compete with low-cost British ones and there would be no
market for their exports
- France:
o The French Revolution and the twenty years of warfare that ensued
delayed economic development and the gap between the British and
French economies widened, but after 1850 industrialisation proceeded
more rapidly
o The French industrial revolution was a more gradual process than the
British one, but French technology was every bit as advanced
- Germany
o Was already endowed with plentiful reserves of coal and iron ore, a
workforce of talented craftsmen and relative ease of communications
o It was political and economic barriers which delayed German
industrialisation and their removal acted as a stimulus to economic growth
o The ending of the Holy Roman Empire and its replacement by the
German Confederation simplified the political map of Germany
o Prussia’s acquisitions in the Rhineland prompted her to establish a
Zillverein
(customs union) to link her to scattered territories – which
occurred in 1816-17 → established all internal tariffs and adopted a
common external tariff → Anhalt and Hesse joined in 1826-28 and in
1829 the southern states of Bavaria and Württemberg agreed to bring
their tariffs into line with Prussia’s by 1832, and by 1834 most of the other
German states had joined the Zollverein, creating a common market of
23.6 million consumers
o The removal of trade barriers was followed by an improvement in
communications
o Though the German cotton industry was never achieved the same volume
of production as the British, the woollen industry grew faster and by 1864
woollens provided more than half of the value of textile exports from
Zollverein
o It was in the coal, iron and steel industries that Germany achieved its
greatest gains, though they came relatively late in the day
o The industry in which Germany eventually rook the lead was steel and as
with other industries, it was technology that provided the key to expansion
- Belgium
o Was the third country to industrialise in the first half of the nineteenth
century
o Was always critically dependent on their more powerful neighbours
o Fortunately for Belgium, their large and accessible iron and coal deposits
enabled her to compete in terms of price with French and German
producers
o The Belgian textile industry did expand so fast, but the linen industry was
mechanised, with dire consequences for domestic workers in Flanders,
who saw their employment disappear
o By 1850, then, Britain was still very much the largest industrial producer
in Europe but its lead was disappearing as France, Germany and Belgium
began to develop their industries
•
Science and the industrial revolution
- Advances in the technology which enabled the industrial revolution to happen
were rarely linked to the scientific discoveries which were also being made in
the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Textbook reading: "the industrialisation of europe and its effects", in william simpson and martin jones (eds), europe: 1783-1914, third edition (london and new york: Ch 7: the industrialisation of europe and its effects. The term industrial revolution" first came into general use in the 1840s and has described as the transformation of an economy based primarily on agriculture to one based on manufacturing industry. Revolution" suggests an overwhelming and rapid change, and implies a once and for all occurrence, rather than a continuing process. However it is clear that once the industrial revolution had began there would be no end to its progress. The fundamental characteristic shared by most european countries in the nineteenth century was the continuing growth in population. Europe"s population rose from 150 million to 400 million between 1750 and 1900. One of the consequences of this rise in population was a continued migration from. Europe to other countries between 1821 and 1924, 55 million europeans emigrated.
