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... use those activities in a decentralized manner while keeping up with far-flung colleagues' progress. Prince Henry of Portugal brought together scientists and laboratories and a library as early as the first half of the fifteenth century, but such institutions became common only during the nineteenth century. The single most important contribution of western science is that it linked science and technology by way of the scientific method, requiring systematic experimentation.
Technology until the industrial revolution was largely the result of craftsmen developing their own technologies within their own fields of endeavor. Scientists, required to test their theories in the real world, became linked to that world. As a result, technology and science became linked (Rosenberg and Birdzell 48). European cities and transportation systems also gave the western societies distinct advantages over their eastern neighbors when discussion is focused on the industrial revolution.
London is a prime example. In 1540, England boasted a population of approximately 3 million, and was a relatively developed country; most of its wealth was concentrated in so-called "shires. " London, even then, was the focus of growth. It was the leading center of economic activity, and dominated the rest of the nation. More than 160 trades and crafts were active in the city at that time, in approximately the following proportions: 25 percent in clothing; 10 percent in leather (shoemaking, cobbling, g lovemaking); 10 percent in metal working; 5. 6 percent in the professions; and, 4 percent as officials and administrators (Barker 45). London was well connected even then with the rest of England and Wales. The Thames provided good water communication upstream, and, via the open sea, along the coast and with Europe.
There was a good waterway system in the country long before rivers came to be improved, and well before the introduction of the Canal Age (Barker 45). Main highways radiated from London and as early as 1637, carriers advertised regular freight service by road between London and York, London and Manchester and London and Exeter. Four-wheel wagons, which could carry several tons, two-wheel carts and packhorse trains were all in use. London was uniquely placed to take advantage of receiving heavy bulky goods by water, or lighter, more valuable goods by land, and then distribute those to the rest of the country (Barker 45). By 1550, London dominated the trade of English cloth, which accounted for as much as 80 percent of all overseas trade at the time (Barker 45). Good internal communications as well as joint ventures ensured that London would survive after the collapse of the Antwerp market.
It should be noted that the cloth which London exported was not actually produced in the city. Instead, the cloth was made in the shires, where underemployed peasants had begun making the cloth as part of the cottage industry which was happening throughout England. Peasants were underemployed because they used draft animals instead of human capital, leaving them the time to take up the manufacture of cloth, for example. The provinces were able to meet the London demand, and the demand increased with the provinces' ability to produce.
Thus was born an industrial growth relationship between the provinces and London that maximized growth during the sixteenth century (47). At the same time, those areas which were agriculturally rich and oversupplied in human capital were able to release some of that capital to the city to undertake job opportunities. London grew to 200, 000 in 1600, and more than doubled that, to 490, 000 by 1700 (Barker 47). The immigration meant that there were now family as well as commercial links between London and the provinces. This proved useful when promoting goods and services, and when providing charity. While London had nearly a half million inhabitants in 1700, the next largest city, Norwich, had only 30, 000 in that same year.
Bristol boasted a mere 20, 000, and Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham had only 10, 000. This indicates the importance that London had on the country as a whole. The docks of London processed 80 percent of the imports, 69 percent of the exports, and 86 percent of re-exports such as tobacco and spices (Barker 47). These goods and imports generated additional business in London itself and elsewhere in the country. While Europe as a whole enjoyed significant advantage over Asia when it came to the industrial revolution, so England enjoyed advantage over the rest of Europe.
Britain was able to develop relatively unchallenged from the rest of the outside world. But the European continent, lacking strong natural borders, provided an arena for differing ideas, interests and disputes, settled generally through devastating wars. The Thirty-Years' War (1618 - 1648) in particular had political and economic repercussions that lasted into the nineteenth century. It began as a religious conflict, but soon became a struggle for the preservation of the German Empire. In the areas where the actual fighting took place, 60 to 70 percent of the population was eradicated. The total German population fell from 16 million to ten or 11 million (Mayer 73).
Hunger and epidemics were rampant. At the war's end, economic relations and trade had broken down. Industrial production had ceased, and agriculture had collapsed. Enormous public debt, armies of beggars and demobilized soldiers impeded the rebuilding of the economy. England was at a distinct advantage in that it also controlled its own customs throughout the country.
In the eight kilometer stretch from Bingen to Koblenz in 1781, there were five customs stations. Duties had to be paid 28 times between Palatinate to Rotterdam. England was economically unified since at least 1707 when the turnpikes between Scotland and England were dismantled. Guild regulations were lifted in England a full century before they were lifted in France (in 1789), and they did not fall in Germany until well into the nineteenth century (Mayer 75). The industrial revolution, then, occurred in the west because of inherently different social structures. There was more emphasis on the nuclear family, and less on the extended family.
marriages were delayed, and fewer children were born in the west. Disasters took a higher toll in the east than in the west, and the climate was friendlier to the human capital stock of the west than the east. Fewer floods and earthquakes eliminated the need for much surplus population. England in particular benefitted from the industrial revolution in no small part because of its isolation from the rest of Europe. England was able to avoid the skirmishes and devastating wars that disabled European countries. England also had a strong commercial hub in London, which provided ready access to markets for both import and export, and which was at the center of a strong land transportation system.
Bibliography: Works Cited Barker, Theo. London and the Industrial Revolution. " History Today 39 (Feb. 1989): 45 - 51. Jones, E. L. The European Miracle. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995.
Mayer, Otto G. Veglen's Imperial Germany Revisited. Tacoma, WA: Sligo Publishers, 1995 Rosenberg, Nathan and L. E. Birdzell. "Science, Technology and the Western Miracle. " Scientific American 263 (Nov. 1990): 42 - 54. Scott, Ottoes B.
A Tale of Two Revolutions. New York, NY: Warner Books, 1996.
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Research essay sample on Rest Of Europe Industrial Revolution
