Why Did The Industrial Revolution Happen Essay

Many economists and historians tried to find the reasons why and how IR happened in Britain. The reasons are important not only to academic purposes, but also to those third world countries who had not yet unlocked their own IR and to politicians and philanthropists who tried to eliminate poverty. The BBC documentary Why the Industrial Revolution Happened Here explores the reasons that IR first happened in Britain. On showing many interesting details, it concludes that Britain had established a liberal institution that encouraged and protected technological inventions. For example, the Glorious Revolution in 1689 had greatly curbed the power of monarch’s monopolies and enhanced that of parliaments whose members were mostly manufacturers owners
Britain was far from a democratic country during industrial revolution. It’s parliament’s support factory owners exploited workers (including children who were forced to work 10h per day). Anger amounted in the slums, workers formed unions, radicals plotted to blow up the government. Cavalry trampled demonstrators; unionists were jailed, machines breakers were shipped to penal colonies at the farthest fringes of British empire. It didn’t have well-established intellectual property system neither. Industrial Revolution was a period of time full of hatred, exploitation, violence, bloody slave trade in which British mercantile gained massive amount of wealth, unscrupulous colonization aimed to trade, and countless wars against other countries. The so-called institution favorable to economic development did not exist, at least not until the ending of second IR. Contrary to what the documentary said about Britain being a liberal country, it was absolutely not a one that followed today’s free trade policies, and in fact it put a high premium on trade protectionism. It’s tariff was among the highest level throughout the world . It directly banned imports of wools, export of some technologies and