INGS1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Rowman & Littlefield, Power Machines, Water Frame
23 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Anastassia Simonian
27 April 2017
The Industrial Revolution and its Consequences, 1750 – 1850
Marks, The Origins of the Modern World, Ch. 4
Questions:
1. What are the “four necessities of life”? Where did they come from in the
biological old regime? Why is that important to know?
- The necessities of life are food, clothing, shelter and fuel for heating and cooking
which mostly came from the land. Thus, it is of importance as the biological old
regime set limits not just on the size of the human population but on the productivity
of the economy as well.
These limits were however soon lifted in the century from 1750 - 1850 that is the era
of industrial revolution. What was previously the work of muscle became steam-
powered machines. The use of coal-fired steam to power machines was a major
breakthrough launching human society out of the biological old regime, enabling the
productive powers and numbers of humans to grow. Society prior was agricultural
and dependent upon annual energy flows from the sun to the Earth. This change to
fossil fuels (first coal, then petroleum) both transformed economies globally and
added to the greenhouses gases of Earth's atmosphere.
These four necessities of life thus are a vital conjuncture in the Industrial revolution.
2. When and why did the British abandon mercantilism and begin to champion
global free trade?
- As mentioned in previous chapter, Britain raised tariffs on imports to britain of
indian textile and in some cases outright banning - that is, mercantilist protectionism.
3. What are the usual explanations for why the Industrial Revolution occurred in
Europe? What evidence from China does the author cite to suggest that these
arguments are not persuasive?
- The usual explanations for why the Industrial revolution began in eighteenth-century
England focus on population dynamics and the growth of free markets. Specific
evidence of 'revolutionary worth' involves processes that mechanize the spinning and
weaving of cotton thread and cloth such as the water frame, and the "mule".
Generally, this evidence is attributed to an English inventiveness perpetuating a
Eurocentric narrative that is the rise of the West. Often, a deemed "despotic" China is
pointed to as a counterexample whereby nothing was done in its "preindustrial
demographic regime" to keep birthrates down and hence create a surplus of materials.
However, as is suggested by Robert B. Marks1 whilst it may be true that England is
1 Marks. R. The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Environmental
Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-First Century (World Social Change)
Chapter 4. Lanham, United States: Rowman & Littlefield. 2015. Print
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The necessities of life are food, clothing, shelter and fuel for heating and cooking which mostly came from the land. Thus, it is of importance as the biological old regime set limits not just on the size of the human population but on the productivity of the economy as well. These limits were however soon lifted in the century from 1750 - 1850 that is the era of industrial revolution. What was previously the work of muscle became steam- powered machines. The use of coal-fired steam to power machines was a major breakthrough launching human society out of the biological old regime, enabling the productive powers and numbers of humans to grow. Society prior was agricultural and dependent upon annual energy flows from the sun to the earth. This change to fossil fuels (first coal, then petroleum) both transformed economies globally and added to the greenhouses gases of earth"s atmosphere.
