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Descriptive Essay: The Industrial Revolution and its Effects

The Industrial Revolution was a time of great age throughout the world. It represented major change from 1760 to the period 1820-1840. The movement originated in Great Britain and affected everything from industrial manufacturing processes to the daily life of the average citizen. I will discuss the Industrial Revolution and the effects it had on the world as a whole.

The primary industry of the time was the textiles industry. It had the most employees, output value, and invested capital. It was the first to take on new modern production methods. The transition to machine power drastically increased productivity and efficiency. This extended to iron production and chemical production.

It started in Great Britain and soon expanded into Western Europe and to the United States. The actual effects of the revolution on different sections of society differed. They manifested themselves at different times. The ‘trickle down’ effect whereby the benefits of the revolution helped the lower classes didn’t happen until towards the 1830s and 1840s. Initially, machines like the Watt Steam Engine and the Spinning Jenny only benefited the rich industrialists.

The effects on the general population, when they did come, were major. Prior to the revolution, most cotton spinning was done with a wheel in the home. These advances allowed families to increase their productivity and output. It gave them more disposable income and enabled them to facilitate the growth of a larger consumer goods market. The lower classes were able to spend. For the first time in history, the masses had a sustained growth in living standards.

Social historians noted the change in where people lived. Industrialists wanted more workers and the new technology largely confined itself to large factories in the cities. Thousands of people who lived in the countryside migrated to the cities permanently. It led to the growth of cities across the world, including London, Manchester, and Boston. The permanent shift from rural living to city living has endured to the present day.

Trade between nations increased as they often had massive surpluses of consumer goods they couldn’t sell in the domestic market. The rate of trade increased and made nations like Great Britain and the United States richer than ever before. Naturally, this translated to military power and the ability to sustain worldwide trade networks and colonies.

On the other hand, the Industrial Revolution and migration led to the mass exploitation of workers and slums. To counter this, workers formed trade unions. They fought back against employers to win rights for themselves and their families. The formation of trade unions and the collective unity of workers across industries are still existent today. It was the first time workers could make demands of their employers. It enfranchised them and gave them rights to upset the status quo and force employers to view their workers as human beings like them.

Overall, the Industrial Revolution was one of the single biggest events in human history. It launched the modern age and drove industrial technology forward at a faster rate than ever before. Even contemporary economics experts failed to predict the extent of the revolution and its effects on world history. It shows why the Industrial Revolution played such a vital role in the building of the United States of today.

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World History Project - Origins to the Present

Course: world history project - origins to the present   >   unit 6.

• READ: The Industrial Revolution
• BEFORE YOU WATCH: Origins of the Industrial Revolution
• WATCH: Origins of the Industrial Revolution
• READ: Scale of the Industrial Revolution

READ: The Global Transformations of the Industrial Revolution

• BEFORE YOU WATCH: The Railroad Journey and the Industrial Revolution - Crash Course World History
• WATCH: Railroads and the Industrial Revolution
• READ: Japan’s Industrial Revolution
• READ: Egypt’s Short-lived Industrial Revolution
• Industrialization

First read: preview and skimming for gist

Second read: key ideas and understanding content.

• How did the Industrial Revolution change family structures in Britain?
• What role did women and children play in the industrial economy? Did they benefit from factory labor?
• What kinds of benefits or opportunities did the Industrial Revolution create for people in Britain?
• How did the Industrial Revolution affect the daily lives and labor of people outside of Europe such as enslaved Africans or colonial subjects?
• In the article, the author cites historian Thomas Finger who argued that “wheat—as much as coal—powered England’s factories.” What does he mean by this? How did wheat power England’s factories, and how did the demand for wheat transform wheat-producing societies around the world?

Third read: evaluating and corroborating

• According to the author, the changes ushered in by the Industrial Revolution had a ripple effect around the world. Using the evidence surrounding either sugar, wheat, or copper provided in the article, trace and explain one of these ripples.
• Imagine you are a new wage-laborer that recently moved from a rural farm community to an industrial city. Using information from the article, explain how your life has changed. What new hardships or opportunities might you face?

The Global Transformations of the Industrial Revolution

Industrial connections, britain’s “dark satanic mills”, social mobility, industrialized sugar comes home, wheat-fueled industrialization, copper connects the world to wales, want to join the conversation.

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The Impact of the British Industrial Revolution

The consequences of the British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) were many, varied, and long-lasting. Working life in rural and urban settings was changed forever by the inventions of new machines, the spread of factories, and the decline of traditional occupations. Developments in transportation and communications meant life in the post-industrial world was more exciting and faster, with people more connected than ever before. Consumer goods became more affordable to more people, and there were more jobs for a booming population. The price to pay for progress was often a working life that was noisy, repetitive, and dangerous, while cities grew to become overcrowded, polluted, and crime-ridden.

The impact of the Industrial Revolution included:

• Many new machines were invented that could do things much faster than previously or could perform entirely new tasks.
• Steam power was cheaper, more reliable, and faster than more traditional power sources.
• Large factories were established, creating jobs and a boom in cotton textile production, in particular.
• Large engineering projects became possible like iron bridges and viaducts.
• Traditional industries like hand weaving and businesses connected to stagecoaches went into terminal decline.
• The cost of food and consumer goods was reduced as items were mass-produced and transportation costs decreased.
• Better tools became available for manufacturers and farmers.
• The coal, iron, and steel industries boomed to provide fuel and raw materials for machines to work.
• The canal system was expanded but then declined.
• Urbanisation accelerated as labour became concentrated around factories in towns and cities.
• Cheap train travel became a possibility for all.
• Demand for skilled labour, especially in textiles, decreased.
• Demand for unskilled labour to operate machines and work on the railways increased.
• The use of child and women labour increased.
• Worker safety declined and was not reversed until the 1830s.
• Trade unions were formed to protect workers' rights.
• The success of mechanisation led to other countries experiencing their own industrial revolutions.

Coal Mining

Mining of tin and coal has a long history in Britain , but the arrival of the Industrial Revolution saw unprecedented activity underground to find the fuel to feed the steam-powered machines that came to dominate industry and transport. The steam-powered pump was invented to drain mines in 1712. This allowed deeper mining and so greatly increased coal production. The Watt steam engine , patented in 1769, allowed steam power to be harnessed for almost anything, and as the steam engines ran on coal, so the mining industry boomed as mechanisation swept across industries of all kinds. This phenomenon only increased with the spread of the railways from 1825 and the increase in steam-powered ships from the 1840s. Coal gas, meanwhile, was used for lighting homes and streets from 1812, and as a source of heat for private homes and cookers. Coke, that is burnt coal, was used as a fuel in the iron and steel industries, and so the demand for coal kept on growing as the Industrial Revolution rolled on.

There were four principal coal mining areas: South Wales, southern Scotland , Lancashire, and Northumberland. To get the coal to where it was needed, Britain's canal system was significantly expanded as transportation by canal was 50% cheaper than using roads. By 1830, " England and Wales had 3,876 miles [6,237 km] of inland canals, up from 1,399 [2,251 km] in 1760" (Horn, 17). Britain produced annually just 2.5 to 3 million tons of coal in 1700, but by 1900, this figure had rocketed to 224 million tons.

Manufacturing

The steam engine transformed industry, particularly one of Britain's biggest sectors: textiles. Spinning and weaving had been cottage industries centred around a single or a few households. A series of machines were invented which revolutionised how cotton was cleaned, spun, and woven. These devices were the flying shuttle (John Kay, 1733), spinning jenny (James Hargreaves, 1764), waterframe (Richard Arkwright, 1769), spinning mule ( Samuel Crompton, 1779), power loom (Edmund Cartwright, 1785), cotton gin (Eli Whitney, 1794), and Robert's loom and self-acting mule (Richard Roberts, 1822-5). Mechanisation permitted the establishment of textile mills and factories where first water-powered and then steam-powered machines did work faster and cheaper than was ever possible by hand. By the 1830s, 75% of cotton mills were using steam power and cotton textiles accounted for half of Britain's total exports.

Some protested violently at the advent of mechanisation, particularly skilled textile workers. The period between 1811 and 1816 saw the Luddites, named after their mythical leader Ned Ludd, smash factory machines. These protestors were dealt with harshly, and the crime of damaging machines could lead to the death penalty.

Despite the turbulence in traditional ways, many more jobs were created by mechanisation than were lost in older industries. In 1830, one in 80 Britons worked in the 4,000+ textile mills across the country. The new jobs were quite different from those in the past. Factory workers had to very often perform repetitive tasks, and they were ruled by the clock. Previously, workers had often been paid for a specific project (piecework) and worked at their own rhythm. In the new factory system, a worker performed only one task in a series that involved many other workers. On the other hand, factory jobs ensured regular pay, something that seasonal agricultural workers, especially, appreciated the value of.

Agriculture

Industrialisation in Britain was dramatic, but this did not mean that agriculture declined. On the contrary, innovations and mechanisation helped make agriculture more efficient than ever and so able to feed the ever-growing population. In 1800, agriculture involved 35% of Britain's total workforce, and even by the end of the Industrial Revolution in 1841, 1 in 5 Britons still worked in farming. Machines countered Britain's relatively high labour costs, and they compensated for the trend of people moving away from the country and into the cities.

The Rotherham swing plough (Joseph Foljambe, 1730), winnowing machine (Andrew Rodgers, 1737), threshing machine (Andrew Meikle, 1787), reaping machine ( Cyrus McCormack, 1834), and steam-powered flour mills all transformed harvesting and food production. Mobile steam engines were used to cut drainage trenches and pump out waterlogged areas to make them useful for agriculture. With the enclosure system, more common land was utilised for farming. Mass-produced agricultural implements were stronger, sharper, and longer-lasting than traditionally-made tools thanks to new metalworking machines. Scientists developed better fertilisers to increase yields. All of these improvements made food cheaper and helped many more people eat healthier diets, and so life expectancy went up, particularly regarding children.

There were negative effects of the Industrial Revolution on the agricultural sector. Jobs were lost, especially seasonal ones as farmers now hired machines at harvest time. Some labourers attacked the new machines that had taken their livelihood, notably during the Swing Riots of 1830-32. Land became more valuable, and so rents were increased, which led to many small farmers having to give up their farms.

There was a great increase in the use of female and child labour, particularly in factories and textile mills. One reason was that both groups were cheaper than male workers, another reason was that women and children had smaller and often more dexterous hands, which were advantages when using some machines. All three groups tended to work 12-hour shifts until this practice was reduced by law to 10 hours (in 1847). Children, on average, began working as young as eight in mines and factories, and so "at least half of nominally school-age children worked full-time during the industrial revolution" (Horn, 57). In the textile industry, women made up half of the workforce.

The health and safety of workers were often a low priority for employers until laws made these an obligatory consideration. Lung diseases caused by coal dust were a common problem for miners. Working in the damp conditions of a textile mill had a similar negative effect on workers there. Factories were very noisy, and many workers suffered hearing loss to various degrees. Repetitive stress injuries were common as workers performed the same tasks all day, six days a week. Dangerous substances were commonly handled, such as lead and mercury. Machines were large, heavy, had fast-moving parts, and were prone to breakages, all of which could lead to accidents like lost fingers, limbs, or worse.

Successive governments were reluctant to restrict business owners in principle since it was considered possibly damaging to the national economy to interfere. Workers attempted to act collectively to protect their interests, but the formation of trade unions was resisted by employers and politicians. Indeed, the government banned trade unions between 1799 and 1824. From the 1830s, though, Acts of Parliament began to ensure workers had improved protection and working conditions. Trade unions like the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (formed in 1851) then grew in stature to ensure these gains in rights were not lost.

Transportation & Communication

For many, the sight and sound of a train tearing through one's local countryside was the most visible and impressive result of the Industrial Revolution. Trains were first used on short lengths of track at mines. In 1825, the first passenger train ran from Stockton to Darlington. The first intercity passenger line was opened in 1830. Running between Liverpool and Manchester and pulled by Stephenson's Rocket locomotive, the line was such a great success it led to the railways spreading everywhere. Trains also revolutionised goods transport since a single train could carry 20 times the cargo of a canal boat and reach its destination eight times faster. This made consumer goods and raw materials transported by train cheaper than previously.

From 1848, passengers could travel from London to Glasgow in 12 hours, a journey that would have taken many days by stagecoach. By 1870, Britain had over 24,000 kilometres (15,000 miles) of rail lines. People were more connected than ever before. Even the less well-off could buy cheap excursion tickets, and so seaside resorts boomed. A trip from London to Brighton by stagecoach took five days and cost £1.20 in 1830; ten years later, the same journey by train took three hours and cost 40 pence.

A Gallery of 30 Industrial Revolution Inventions

Businesses, especially food producers, could now reach new markets which previously had been too expensive or too far away for fresh produce to be sold there. No longer restricted to local markets where they were already well known, businesses invested in countrywide advertising inside the new bustling train stations. The railways created tens of thousands of new jobs. Steam was also used to power metal ships, which were faster and more reliable than vessels that used only sails. Dockyards were another significant employer. The rise of steam-powered transport perpetuated the success of the coal, iron, and steel industries. In 1850, 2.25 million tons of pig iron were produced in Britain, that compares to 70,000 tons in 1786. Sheffield became the world's major steel producer; the city had five steel manufacturers in 1770, but 135 by 1856.

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Communication was greatly sped up by the railways. Trains delivered newspapers from one area of the country to the other on the same day. Trains delivered letters and parcels in 24 hours. The railways inspired the invention of the electrical telegraph , invented in 1837 by William Fothergill Cook (1806-1879) and Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875), so that train drivers could communicate with stations. Soon the public could send private messages, and journalists, too, used the telegraph to contact their offices, and so the delivery of news sped up remarkably. As the Industrial Revolution spread to other European countries and the United States, so more communication and travel opportunities arrived. Ocean-crossing steamships and intercontinental telegraph cables made the world more connected than ever before.

As in other areas of the Industrial Revolution, new modes of transport brought some negative consequences. Canals and stagecoach companies went into decline. Some people were obliged to give up their land to make way for the railway lines. There was more air pollution and noise, and the countryside was spoilt by the tracks, bridges, and tunnels built to allow trains the most direct route between destinations.

Effects on Society

The population of Britain rocketed from 6 million in 1750 to 21 million in 1851. The 1851 census in Britain revealed that, for the first time, more people were living in towns and cities than in the countryside. The populations of cities and towns like Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Halifax increased ten times over in the 19th century. More young people meeting each other meant marriages happened earlier, and the birth rate went up compared to societies in rural areas.

Life became cramped in the cities that had grown up around factories and coalfields. Many families were obliged to share the same home. "In Liverpool in the 1840s, 40,000 people were living in cellars, with an average of six people per cellar" (Armstrong, 188). Pollution became a serious problem in many places. Poor sanitation led to the spread of diseases. In 1837, 1839, and 1847, there were typhus epidemics. In 1831 and 1849, there were cholera epidemics. Another effect of urbanisation was the rise in petty crime. Criminals were now more confident of escaping detection in the ever-increasing anonymity of life in the cities. The education of many children was replaced by a working day, a choice often made by parents to supplement a meagre family income. There were some rudimentary schools, and some employers provided a certain level of education, but compulsory education for 5-to-12-year-olds and the institutions necessary to provide it would not come along until the 1870s. Literacy rates improved in the period, a development helped by the availability of cheap books made possible by economies of scale from papermaking machines and printing presses.

Consumerism developed with workers able to afford mass-produced goods. There were more shops than ever before to meet this demand, and the stock was more interesting, with exotic goods coming from across the British Empire . An urban middle class grew up, but the gulf between those at the bottom and the top, if anything, widened. Factory workers, for example, had few transferable skills, and so they were stuck at their level of work. In the past, a handweaver might have saved, perhaps over many years, to form their own business with their own employees, but that method of climbing the social ladder now became much more difficult to access. Capital might have replaced land as the great wealth indicator, but for most people, the Industrial Revolution brought a different way of living, not necessarily a better one.

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Bibliography

• Allen, Robert C. The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective . Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Armstrong, Benjamin. Britain 1783-1885. Hodder Education, 2020.
• Dugan, Sally & Dugan, David. The Day the World Took Off. Channel 4 Book, 2023.
• Forty, Simon. 100 Innovations of the Industrial Revolution. Haynes Publishing UK, 2019.
• Hepplewhite, Peter. The Industrial Revolution. Wayland, 2016.
• Horn, Jeff. The Industrial Revolution . Greenwood, 2007.
• Humphries, Jane. Childhood and Child Labour in the British Industrial Revolution . Cambridge University Press, 2011.
• Shelley, C et al. Industrialisation & Social Change in Britain. PEARSON SCHOOLS, 2016.
• Yorke, Stan. The Industrial Revolution Explained. Countryside Books, 2005.

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Cartwright, M. (2023, April 24). The Impact of the British Industrial Revolution . World History Encyclopedia . Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2226/the-impact-of-the-british-industrial-revolution/

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Cartwright, Mark. " The Impact of the British Industrial Revolution ." World History Encyclopedia . Last modified April 24, 2023. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2226/the-impact-of-the-british-industrial-revolution/.

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Essay on Industrial Revolution

Students are often asked to write an essay on Industrial Revolution in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Industrial Revolution

What was the industrial revolution.

The Industrial Revolution was a big change in how things were made. Before, people made goods by hand at home. Then, machines in big buildings called factories started doing this work. This change began in Britain in the late 1700s and spread to other countries.

Changes in Technology

New machines could spin thread much faster than by hand. The steam engine was also invented. This could power machines and move trains and ships. These inventions made making things and moving them around quicker and cheaper.

Impact on People

Many people left farms to work in factories in cities. Life became hard for these workers. They worked long hours for little money. But, more goods were made, and over time, people’s lives improved as new jobs were created.

Global Effects

The Industrial Revolution changed the world. Countries with factories got rich and powerful. They used resources from other places to make goods. This led to big changes in trade and made some countries very wealthy.

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250 Words Essay on Industrial Revolution

What was the industrial revolution.

The Industrial Revolution was a big change in the way things were made. Before this time, people made goods by hand at home or in small shops. Around the late 18th century, this changed. Machines began to do the work in big factories. This started in Britain and then spread to other parts of the world.

Changes in Industry

Machines could make things faster and cheaper than humans could by hand. This meant more products could be made and more people could buy them. Steam engines powered these machines, and coal was the fuel. This led to a rise in coal mining and iron production.

Life During the Revolution

Because of factory work, cities grew as people moved there for jobs. This was a big shift from life on farms. Working in factories was hard, and many worked long hours for low pay. The air and water got dirty from the factories, too.

Impact on Society

The Industrial Revolution changed life a lot. Travel became easier with trains and steamships. Communication got better with inventions like the telegraph. People’s lives improved with new goods and technology. But, there were also bad parts, like child labor and pollution.

500 Words Essay on Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a time of big change in how people worked and lived. It started in the late 1700s and went on until the early 1800s. Before this period, most goods were made by hand, and people lived in small villages and worked on farms. But during the Industrial Revolution, machines began to do the work that people and animals used to do. This change began in Britain and then spread to other countries, including the United States and parts of Europe.

New Inventions

One of the most important parts of the Industrial Revolution was the creation of new machines. These machines could make things faster and cheaper than before. For example, the spinning jenny allowed one worker to make several threads at the same time, and the steam engine could power different kinds of machines. Because of these inventions, factories were built where many machines could work together. This was much different from the old way of making things at home or in small workshops.

Life in Factories

Transportation changes.

The Industrial Revolution also changed how goods and people moved from place to place. The steam locomotive made it possible to build railways, which could transport goods and people much faster than horses and carts. Ships also got steam engines, which made travel across oceans quicker and easier. This meant that goods could be sold far away, and it was easier for people to move to new places.

The Industrial Revolution had a big impact on society. It made some people very rich, especially those who owned the factories. But many workers lived in poor conditions and did not get much money. Over time, this led to new laws to protect workers and improve their lives.

Changes in Agriculture

Farming also changed during the Industrial Revolution. New machines like the seed drill and the mechanical reaper made farming more efficient. This meant fewer people were needed to work on farms, so they went to work in the factories instead.

The Industrial Revolution was a time of great change. It made life different in many ways, from how people made things to how they lived and worked. It was not always easy or good for everyone, but it led to the modern world we know today. We still feel the effects of these changes in our daily lives, as the new ways of making and doing things that started back then continue to shape our world.

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Primary Source Set The Industrial Revolution in the United States

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The Industrial Revolution took place over more than a century, as production of goods moved from home businesses, where products were generally crafted by hand, to machine-aided production in factories. This revolution, which involved major changes in transportation, manufacturing, and communications, transformed the daily lives of Americans as much as— and arguably more than—any single event in U.S. history.

An early landmark moment in the Industrial Revolution came near the end of the eighteenth century, when Samuel Slater brought new manufacturing technologies from Britain to the United States and founded the first U.S. cotton mill in Beverly, Massachusetts. Slater’s Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, like many of the mills and factories that sprang up in the next few decades, was powered by water, which confined industrial development to the northeast at first. The concentration of industry in the Northeast also facilitated the development of transportation systems such as railroads and canals, which encouraged commerce and trade.

The technological innovation that would come to mark the United States in the nineteenth century began to show itself with Robert Fulton’s establishment of steamboat service on the Hudson River, Samuel F. B. Morse’s invention of the telegraph, and Elias Howe’s invention of the sewing machine, all before the Civil War. Following the Civil War, industrialization in the United States increased at a breakneck pace. This period, encompassing most of the second half of the nineteenth century, has been called the Second Industrial Revolution or the American Industrial Revolution. Over the first half of the century, the country expanded greatly, and the new territory was rich in natural resources. Completing the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 was a major milestone, making it easier to transport people, raw materials, and products. The United States also had vast human resources: between 1860 and 1900, fourteen million immigrants came to the country, providing workers for an array of industries.

The American industrialists overseeing this expansion were ready to take risks to make their businesses successful. Andrew Carnegie established the first steel mills in the U.S. to use the British “Bessemer process” for mass producing steel, becoming a titan of the steel industry in the process. He acquired business interests in the mines that produced the raw material for steel, the mills and ovens that created the final product and the railroads and shipping lines that transported the goods, thus controlling every aspect of the steelmaking process.

Other industrialists, including John D. Rockefeller, merged the operations of many large companies to form a trust. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust came to monopolize 90% of the industry, severely limiting competition. These monopolies were often accused of intimidating smaller businesses and competitors in order to maintain high prices and profits. Economic influence gave these industrial magnates significant political clout as well. The U.S. government adopted policies that supported industrial development such as providing land for the construction of railroads and maintaining high tariffs to protect American industry from foreign competition.

American inventors like Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Alva Edison created a long list of new technologies that improved communication, transportation, and industrial production. Edison made improvements to existing technologies, including the telegraph while also creating revolutionary new technologies such as the light bulb, the phonograph, the kinetograph, and the electric dynamo. Bell, meanwhile, explored new speaking and hearing technologies, and became known as the inventor of the telephone.

For millions of working Americans, the industrial revolution changed the very nature of their daily work. Previously, they might have worked for themselves at home, in a small shop, or outdoors, crafting raw materials into products, or growing a crop from seed to table. When they took factory jobs, they were working for a large company. The repetitive work often involved only one small step in the manufacturing process, so the worker did not see or appreciate what was being made; the work was often dangerous and performed in unsanitary conditions. Some women entered the work force, as did many children. Child labor became a major issue. Dangerous working conditions, long hours, and concern over wages and child labor contributed to the growth of labor unions. In the decades after the Civil War, workers organized strikes and work stoppages that helped to publicize their problems. One especially significant labor upheaval was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Wage cuts in the railroad industry led to the strike, which began in West Virginia and spread to three additional states over a period of 45 days before being violently ended by a combination of vigilantes, National Guardsmen, and federal troops. Similar episodes occurred more frequently in the following decades as workers organized and asserted themselves against perceived injustices.

The new jobs for the working class were in the cities. Thus, the Industrial Revolution began the transition of the United States from a rural to an urban society. Young people raised on farms saw greater opportunities in the cities and moved there, as did millions of immigrants from Europe. Providing housing for all the new residents of cities was a problem, and many workers found themselves living in urban slums; open sewers ran alongside the streets, and the water supply was often tainted, causing disease. These deplorable urban conditions gave rise to the Progressive Movement in the early twentieth century; the result would be many new laws to protect and support people, eventually changing the relationship between government and the people.

The Industrial Revolution is a complex set of economic, technological, and social changes that occurred over a substantial period of time. Teachers should consider the documents in this collection as tools for stimulating student thinking about aspects of the Industrial Revolution.

Suggestions for Teachers

• After providing a definition of the Industrial Revolution and explaining the time span across which it took place, teachers might supply small groups of students with a set of the documents in this primary source set. Students can categorize the documents by whether they provide information about what happened, why it happened, or its effects. Some documents may fit into more than one category. When small groups have completed their work, the teacher can facilitate creating a class list of events of the Industrial Revolution, causes (or supporting factors), and effects. Students may search the Library’s online collections to find additional evidence to support the causes and effects on the class chart.
• Using the documents in this primary source set, students can create a timeline of important events in the Industrial Revolution. The last document in the set is dated 1919. Was the Industrial Revolution over by 1919? Challenge students to find evidence in the Library of Congress digital collections to support their answer (there are documents that suggest industrialization in the South was still taking place into the 1930s).
• Understanding a historical event as it was experienced by those who lived through it is an important skill of historical thinking—and one that can be difficult to develop. Teachers may challenge students to study documents in the collection to identify varied perspectives on the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution, as experienced by people of the day. Would students classify the responses as mainly positive, mainly negative, or about equally divided? How did people respond to what they perceived as negative effects of the Industrial Revolution?
• In 1893, Chicago hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition, which highlighted achievements of the United States and other nations in a variety of fields, including manufacturing and technology. An entire building was devoted to electricity. Using the primary source set as a starting point, ask students to design an exhibit about the development of American industry for the World’s Columbian Exposition.

Additional Resources

Detroit Publishing Company

Built in America

Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers at the Library of Congress

Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works

National Child Labor Committee Collection

• Society and Politics
• Art and Culture
• Biographies
• Publications

Grade 8 - Term 1: The Industrial Revolution in Britain and Southern Africa from 1860

Advances in agricultural techniques and practices resulted in an increased supply of food and raw materials, changes in industrial organization and new technology resulted in increased production, efficiency and profits, and the increase in commerce, foreign and domestic, were all conditions which promoted the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Many of these conditions were so closely interrelated that increased activity in one spurred an increase in activity in another. Further, this interdependence of conditions creates a problem when one attempts to delineate them for the purpose of analysis in the classroom.

Changes during the Industrial Revolution in Britain

Factories crated during the Industrial Revolution Changes that were brought on by the Industrial Revolution led to advances and technological innovations which caused growth in agricultural and industrial production, economic expansion and changes in living conditions, while at the same time there was a new sense of national identity and civic pride. The most dramatic changes were witnessed in rural areas, where the provincial landscape often became urban and industrialized following advances in agriculture, industry and shipping. During the 18th century, after a long period of enclosures, new farming systems created an agricultural revolution that produced larger quantities of crops to feed the increasing population. New tools, fertilizers and harvesting techniques were introduced, resulting in increased productivity and agricultural prosperity

To sustain a growing population, mass production was achieved by replacing water and animal power with steam power, and by the invention of new machinery and technology. The introduction of steam power was a catalyst for the Industrial Revolution. James Watt’s improvements to the steam engine, and his collaboration with Matthew Boulton on the creation of the rotating engine, were crucial for industrial production: machinery could now function much faster, with rotary movements and without human power. Coal became a key factor in the success of industrialization; it was used to produce the steam power on which industry depended. Improvements in mining technology ensured that more coal could be extracted to power the factories and run railway trains and steamships.

Industrialization resulted in an increase in population and the occurrence of urbanization, as a growing number of people moved to urban centres in search of employment. Some individuals became very wealthy, but not everyone shared the same fate since some lived in horrible conditions. Children were sent to work in factories, where they were exploited and ill-treated; women experienced substantial changes in their lifestyle as they took jobs in domestic service and the textile industries, leaving the agricultural workforce and spending less time in the family home. This period also saw the creation of a middle class that enjoyed the benefits of the new prosperity.

Beginning of the Industrial Revolution in South Africa

The discovery of minerals in the late nineteenth century--diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1886- dramatically changed the economic and political structure of southern Africa. South Africa had an extremely valuable resource that attracted foreign capital and large-scale immigration. Discoveries of gold and diamonds in South Africa exceeded those in any other part of the world, and more foreign capital had been invested in South Africa than in the rest of Africa combined. Diamond and, in particular, gold mining industries required an enormous amount of inexpensive labour in order to be profitable. To constrain the ability of African workers to bargain up their wages, and to ensure that they put up with strenuous employment conditions, the British in the 1870s and 1880s conquered the still-independent African states in southern Africa, confiscated the bulk of the land and imposed cash taxation demands. In this way, they ensured that men who had chosen previously to work in the mines on their own terms were now forced to do so on employers' terms. In the new industrial cities, African workers were subjected to a bewildering array of discriminatory laws and practices, all enforced in order to keep workers cheap and pliable. At first the "Rand" became covered by small claims just like at Kimberley, but men like Rhodes, Barnato and Beit who had become wealthy in the diamond mines invested their profits in gold-mining.

Due to the relatively low quality of the ore, it required a lot of digging required to produce acceptable amounts of gold, and that could only be accomplished by using costly heavy machinery. That ruled out most small miners, but other Europeans with access to capital invested in Rand gold mines, and the diamond moguls were never able to achieve the same level of control as they had at Kimberley. By 1889, the South African gold mines were controlled by 124 companies organized into nine "groups" based on their sources of financing.African migrant labour--were first established in the course of South Africa's industrial revolution.

Both mining regions faced the same problem with labour--how to find enough workers and how to keep their cost low. In each case, local governments passed laws at the insistence of the mining companies that limited the right of black Africans to own mining claims or to trade their products. Ultimately, black Africans were relegated to performing manual labour while whites got the skilled jobs or positions as labour foremen. In addition, black workers were forbidden by law from living wherever they wanted, and instead forced to stay in segregated neighbourhoods or mining compounds. The political power of the mining companies became so great that once the Kimberley area was annexed by Cape Colony in 1880, it took only a decade before diamond "baron" Cecil Rhodes was elected prime minister of Cape Colony.

Wealth from the Slave Trade

Mainly, Britain, America, Europe and Africa profited from the slave trade. The trade also created, sustained and relied on a large support network of shipping services, ports, and finance and insurance companies, employing thousands of people. The processing of raw materials that were harvested or extracted by the slaves created new industries where plantation owners profited from the use of free labour. Sir John Hawkins (1532-1595) from Plymouth, was the first Englishman to trade in Africans, making three voyages to Sierra Leone and taking 1,200 inhabitants to Hispaniola and St Domingue (present day Dominican Republic and Haiti) from 1562. The British slave trade started to become a major enterprise in the 17th century, when King James I set up the first monopoly company to trade with Africa in 1618. Britain acquired colonies in America and the Caribbean and demand for slaves to work the tobacco, rice, sugar and other crops on plantations grew. London was the centre of this early trade.In 1698 the monopoly on trade with Africa was abolished, opening up the valuable opportunity to merchants from other ports such as Bristol and Liverpool. Wealth from the direct trade in slaves and from the plantations came back to Britain and was invested in buildings which stand today.

Child Labour during the Industrial Revolution

Child labour, the practice of employing young children in factories and in other industries, was a widespread means of providing mass labour at little expense to employers during the American Industrial Revolution. The employers forced young workers into dangerous labour-intensive jobs that caused significant social, mental, and in some cases, physical damage. Children performed a variety of tasks that were auxiliary to their parents but critical to the family economy. Children who lived on farms worked with the animals or in the fields planting seeds, pulling weeds and picking the ripe crop. Boys looked after the draught animals, cattle and sheep while girls milked the cows and cared for the chickens. Children who worked in homes were apprentices, chimney sweeps, domestic servants, or assistants in the family business. As apprentices, children lived and worked with their master who established a workshop in his home or attached to the back of his cottage. The children received training in the trade instead of wages. Once they became fairly skilled in the trade they became journeymen.

By the time they reached the age of twenty-one, most could start their own business because they had become highly skilled masters. The infamous chimney sweeps, however, had apprenticeships considered especially harmful and exploitative. Boys as young as four would work for a master sweep who would send them up the narrow chimneys of British homes to scrape the soot off the sides. Around age twelve many girls left home to become domestic servants in the homes of artisans, traders, shopkeepers and manufacturers. They received a low wage, and room and board in exchange for doing household chores.

Child labour began to decline as the labour and reform movements grew and labour standards in general began improving, increasing the political power of working people and other social reformers to demand legislation regulating child labour. Union organizing and child labour reform were often intertwined, and common initiatives were conducted by organizations led by working women and middle class consumers, such as state Consumers’ Leagues and Working Women’s Societies. These organizations generated the National Consumers’ League in 1899 and the National Child Labour Committee in 1904, which shared goals of challenging child labour, including through anti-sweatshop campaigns and labelling programs.

Economy before the Industrial Revolution

At the dawn of the eighteenth century, farming was the primary livelihood in England, with at least 75% of the population making its living off the land. The cottage industry was developed to take advantage of the farmers' free time and use it to produce quality textiles for a reasonable price. To begin the process, a cloth merchant from the city needed enough money to travel into the countryside and purchase a load of wool from a sheep farm. He would then distribute the raw materials among several farming households to be made into cloth. The preparation of the wool was a task in which the whole family took part. Women and girls first washed the wool to remove the dirt and natural oils and then dyed it as desired. They also carded the wool, which meant combing it between two pads of nails until the fibres were all pointed in the same direction. Next, the wool was spun into thread using a spinning wheel and wound onto a bobbin. The actual weaving of the thread into cloth was done using a loom operated by hand and foot; it was physically demanding work, and was therefore the man's job. The merchant would return at regular intervals over the season to pick up the finished cloth, which he then brought back to the city to sell or export and to drop of a new load of wool to be processed.

The cottage industry helped to prepare the country for the Industrial Revolution by boosting the English economy through the increase of trade that occurred as the country became well-known overseas for its high-quality and low-cost exports. Previously, tradesmen had done all the manufacturing themselves, so the idea of subcontracting was new and appealing. The cottage industry was also a good source of auxiliary funds for the rural people. However, many farming families came to depend on the enterprise; thus, when industrialization and the Agricultural Revolution reduced the need for farm workers, many were forced to leave their homes and move to the city.

Southern Africa by 1860’s

Brought to the British colony of Natal in1860 as indentured labourers, coolies, on five-year contracts, Indians came to work mainly on sugar plantations where they lived under very harsh and cruel conditions. After five years, they were given the options of renewing their contracts, returning to India or becoming independent workers. To induce the coolies into second terms, the colonial government of Natal promised grants of land on expiry of contracts. But the colony did not honour this agreement and only about fifty people received plots. Nevertheless, many opted for freedom and became small holders, market gardeners, fishermen, domestic servants, waiters or coal miners. Some left the colony. By the 1870's, free Indians were exploring opportunities in the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (Transvaal). Those who sought to make their fortunes in the diamond and gold fields were not allowed digging rights and became traders, hawkers and workers.

The first group of Indians arrived in the British colony of Natal in 1860. About 150 indentured labourers arrived at Port Natal on board the ship Truro. When the sugar industry was established in Natal the local Zulu labourers were recruited to work on the sugar plantations. However, the Natal colonial authorities were not initially aware that Zulu males regarded agricultural work as a female activity. Traditionally, the Zulu males were involved in grazing cattle and defending the tribe against foreign attack. The high labour turnover forced the colonial authorities to seek Indian labour that was already successfully employed in other British colonies. The indentured labourers were given a monthly stipend of two British pounds. They were also given provisions and their health needs were catered for. Their earnings as indentured labourers were considerably higher than they could earn in India. Therefore, future shipments of indentured labourers were highly successful. At the end of the initial three year contract the indentured labourers were given a free passage back to India or given agricultural land equivalent to the value of a passage back to India. Owning their own land was an unlikely event in their homeland of India and it is understandable that the majority preferred to remain in South Africa.

Diamond Mining in Kimberley from 1867 onwards

Diamonds were formed billions of years ago and are extremely rare because so few are able to survive the difficult journey from the pits of the earth to reach the earth’s surface. From the diamonds that are being mined today, only about 50 percent are thought to be high enough quality to be sold on the diamond market. Many skilled experts will handle a diamond before it makes it to the one that is coveting such a precious stone. The story of diamonds in South Africa begins between December 1866 and February 1867 when 15-year-old Erasmus Jacobs found a transparent rock on his father’s farm, on the south bank of the Orange River. Suddenly, both the Boers and the British were interested in the sovereignty over the area. The area soon attracted a large number of white fortune hunters. Over the next few years, South Africa yielded more diamonds than India had in over 2,000 years.

In the 1870′s and 1880′s Kimberley, encompassing the mines that produced 95% of the world’s diamonds, was home to great wealth and fierce rivalries, most notably that between Cecil John Rhodes and Barney Barnato.In 1848 the British annexed the entire area between the Orange and Vaal Rivers, which included the Griqualand area, and called it the Orange River Sovereignty with a Magistrate at Bloemfontein who flew the Union Jack. Due to the high costs and low returns the British were to withdraw from the area thanks to the Bloemfontein Convention. It did not help the British that they were about to embark on the Crimean War, so they were looking to consolidate imperial adventures for the time being. In 1854 the Orange Free State was established and the Transvaal would slowly form by 1860. This also meant that Griqualand West was technically independent but it would have to fight off incursions from Boers or any other interested groups. Official British interest in Griqualand was purely opportunistic. In the early 1870s rich diamond mines were discovered. As Griqualand West bordered Transvaal and the Cape Colony, both colonies would claim an interest. The Boers and the British were antagonistic and hostile to each other; each colony did not wish the other to take control of such a rich resource.

Rhodes, sensing he had ventured into an untapped market, bought up diamond fields, including one owned by two brothers named "de Beer." In 1880, he bought the claims of fellow entrepreneur and rival Barney Barnato to create the De Beers Mining Company. The tendency in diamond mining is to combine with smaller groups to form larger ones. Individuals needing common infrastructure form diggers committees and small claim holders wanting more land merge into large claimholders. Thus, it only took a few years for De Beers to become the owner of virtually all South African diamond Mines.

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Industrial Revolution — Positive and Negative Effects of the Industrial Revolution

Positive and Negative Effects of The Industrial Revolution

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Published: Sep 5, 2023

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Positive effects: technological advancements and economic growth, negative effects: harsh working conditions and exploitation, positive effects: urbanization and social mobility, negative effects: environmental degradation, positive effects: advances in education and medicine, negative effects: social inequalities and class struggles.

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The Fourth Industrial Revolution

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The Fourth Industrial Revolution heralds a series of social, political, cultural, and economic upheavals that will unfold over the 21st century. Building on the widespread availability of digital technologies that were the result of the Third Industrial, or Digital, Revolution, the Fourth Industrial Revolution will be driven largely by the convergence of digital, biological, and physical innovations.

Like the First Industrial Revolution ’s steam-powered factories, the Second Industrial Revolution ’s application of science to mass production and manufacturing, and the Third Industrial Revolution’s start into digitization, the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s technologies, such as artificial intelligence, genome editing, augmented reality, robotics, and 3-D printing, are rapidly changing the way humans create, exchange, and distribute value. As occurred in the previous revolutions, this will profoundly transform institutions, industries, and individuals. More importantly, this revolution will be guided by the choices that people make today: the world in 50 to 100 years from now will owe a lot of its character to how we think about, invest in, and deploy these powerful new technologies.

It’s important to appreciate that the Fourth Industrial Revolution involves a systemic change across many sectors and aspects of human life: the crosscutting impacts of emerging technologies are even more important than the exciting capabilities they represent. Our ability to edit the building blocks of life has recently been massively expanded by low-cost gene sequencing and techniques such as CRISPR; artificial intelligence is augmenting processes and skill in every industry; neurotechnology is making unprecedented strides in how we can use and influence the brain as the last frontier of human biology; automation is disrupting century-old transport and manufacturing paradigms; and technologies such as blockchain , used in executing cryptocurrency transactions, and smart materials are redefining and blurring the boundary between the digital and physical worlds.

The result of all this is societal transformation at a global scale. By affecting the incentives, rules, and norms of economic life, it transforms how we communicate, learn, entertain ourselves, and relate to one another and how we understand ourselves as human beings. Furthermore, the sense that new technologies are being developed and implemented at an increasingly rapid pace has an impact on human identities, communities, and political structures. As a result, our responsibilities to one another, our opportunities for self-realization, and our ability to positively impact the world are intricately tied to and shaped by how we engage with the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This revolution is not just happening to us—we are not its victims—but rather we have the opportunity and even responsibility to give it structure and purpose.

As economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee have pointed out, this revolution could yield greater inequality , particularly in its potential to disrupt labor markets. As automation substitutes for labor across the entire economy, the net displacement of workers by machines might exacerbate the gap between returns to capital and returns to labor. On the other hand, it is also possible that the displacement of workers by technology will, in aggregate, result in a net increase in safe and rewarding jobs.

All previous industrial revolutions have had both positive and negative impacts on different stakeholders. Nations have become wealthier, and technologies have helped pull entire societies out of poverty, but the inability to fairly distribute the resulting benefits or anticipate externalities has resulted in global challenges. By recognizing the risks, whether cybersecurity threats, misinformation on a massive scale through digital media, potential unemployment, or increasing social and income inequality, we can take the steps to align common human values with our technological progress and ensure that the Fourth Industrial Revolution benefits human beings first and foremost.

We cannot foresee at this point which scenario is likely to emerge from this new revolution. However, I am convinced of one thing—that in the future, talent, more than capital, will represent the critical factor of production.

With these fundamental transformations underway today, we have the opportunity to proactively shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution to be both inclusive and human-centered. This revolution is about much more than technology—it is an opportunity to unite global communities, to build sustainable economies, to adapt and modernize governance models, to reduce material and social inequalities, and to commit to values-based leadership of emerging technologies.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is therefore not a prediction of the future but a call to action. It is a vision for developing, diffusing, and governing technologies in ways that foster a more empowering, collaborative, and sustainable foundation for social and economic development, built around shared values of the common good, human dignity, and intergenerational stewardship. Realizing this vision will be the core challenge and great responsibility of the next 50 years.

This essay was originally published in 2018 in Encyclopædia Britannica Anniversary Edition: 250 Years of Excellence (1768–2018).

Britain’s Industrial Revolution Essay

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Introduction

Factors that led to britain’s industrialization in the eighteenth century, works cited.

“ Industrial revolution refers to dramatic change in the main sectors of economy such as agriculture, transportation and manufacturing. Industrialization was associated with major benefits such as rise in people’s living standards, increased job opportunities and economic growth, among others.

According to historians, Great Britain was the first nation in the entire globe to industrialize. Industrialization in Britain started in the late eighteenth century. The following essay examines the factors that led to Britain’s industrialization in the late eighteenth century.

By the second part of the eighteenth century, Great Britain was regarded as one of the wealthiest nation across the globe due to industrial revolution. The following factors explain why Industrial revolution occurred in Britain;

Agricultural revolution of the eighteenth century was one of the factors. According to historians, agricultural revolution was characterized by a change in stock breeding and farming methods which in turn enhanced food production in Great Britain. Framers adopted a commercial approach as opposed to the past where they produced food for domestic use.

The large demand of food commodity from London motivated workers to increase their production. Landlordism, which refers to the act of owning large estates, was also a main factor that enhances commercialization of British agriculture. Agricultural revolution helped to lower the food commodity prices in Great Britain.

The cost of labor also lowered as a result of agricultural revolution. British government was therefore in a position to feed its citizens. British families thus, used their disposal incomes to buy manufactured products. Increased food production in Great Britain caused the population to increase. Population growth played a major role in providing the required labor in the new factories.

The other factor which led to Britain’s industrialization in the eighteenth century is the availability of capital for investment. Financial reforms which included introduction of derivatives such as swaps and options also enhanced the industrial revolution in Great Britain. Additionally, the revolution was boosted by the presence of effective central namely Bank of England.

The financial system in the Great Britain was highly effective compared to other European nations like Spain and Italy. The introduction of financial instruments such as bill of exchange made it possible for people to make payments. Political powers in Great Britain were based on economic and technological matters. Thus, the country had a large number of individuals whose main objective was innovation for development (Arnstein 72).

A study which was done by Arnstein (20) suggested that the presence of huge mineral deposits also enhanced industrialization in Great Britain. Britain is a country which is rich in mineral deposits such as iron ore and carbon fuel. Mineral resources played an important role in the manufacturing process. Iron was used in the production of new machineries. The country’s size was relatively smaller and this enhanced transportation of minerals.

The availability of ready market for manufactured goods led to Britain’s industrialization. Availability of ready market ensured that goods from Great Britain were absorbed as fast as they were produced. The country’s exports increased significantly during the late part of the eighteenth century.

During the colonial times, the nation had created an immense colonial empire. The colonial empire made the country to export goods to many parts of the world, compared to its key rivals such as Holland and France. The development of merchant marine made it possible for the country to transport goods throughout the world. Also, Britain’s railroad created a faster and cheaper means of transportation for the manufactured goods.

This had major impacts on the markets as it increased demand for goods and services. Britain’s railroad connected the major towns such as London, Manchester and Liverpool and this helped to spur trade. As a prerequisite to create conducive atmosphere for vibrant economic growth, the British government heavily invested in infrastructural developments.

Among the infrastructural developments that were made include the invention of steam engine. The invention of steam engine also played an important role in enhancing productivity of goods in Great Britain. It facilitated trade in the European region through easier market access by linking Britain with neighboring countries like Spain and Germany. Construction of infrastructural facilities was also enhanced by plenty supply of water from rivers (Arnstein 18).

According to Arnstein (56), Industrialization in Great Britain was also enhanced by the country’s ability to produce goods cheaply. The adoption of machinery in production of goods led to mass production and reduced the cost of production. The invention of flying shuttle led to mass production of yard goods.

In addition, factories were located near rivers and sources of power, which in turn enabled manufacturers to double their output. Great Britain also protected its key industries such as textile by discouraging imports.

The newly created factories provided jobs to thousands of families in Great Britain. In order to ensure that factory machines run at a steady rate, employees were required to work in shifts. Factory managers mainly employed workers from rural areas as they were regarded as hard working. This made people to live near factories and this in turn helped to create new towns.

Arnstein (36) in his study suggested that, the British government made substantial efforts in enhancing industrialization in the late eighteenth century. The government provided investors with a stable business environment. The parliament passed laws which safeguarded private property.

Additionally, Great Britain adopted capitalism form of economy which advocates for private ownership of resources. There were thus, no restrictions on private ownership of resources in England. The government did not intervene with regard to tariffs and taxes. The government also ensured that the credit system was flexible for private investors. The free market economy ensured that individuals’ had rights to own property and dispose off natural resources and man-made resources as they wished.

It also provided the owners of property with the right income, generated from the resources. Workers were also free to enter into any occupation for which they were specialized in. There was the aspect of self interest in pursuit of personal goals. Factories aimed at maximizing production and profits, land owners aimed at achieving maximum rent, workers shifted to occupation which offered the highest rewards and buyers spent their incomes in the way that satisfied the people most.

Industrial revolution in Great Britain in the late part of eighteenth-century was facilitated by factors such as the availability of resources for production, geographical advantages, such as the presence of streams and rivers which provided factories with water, financial reforms which resulted in extra capital for investment, among others. Industrial revolution in Great Britain brought about changes such as technological advancements, mass production, creation of new urban centers and efficient transport systems, among others.

Arnstein, Walter. Britain yesterday and today: 1830 to the present, Edition5 . London: D.C. Health, 1988.

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American fried chicken can now be served from the Philippines

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I n April a New York fried-chicken shop went viral. It was not the food at Sansan Chicken East Village that captured the world’s imagination, but the service. Diners found an assistant from the Philippines running the till via video link.

The service is provided by Happy Cashier, which connects American firms with Filipino workers. Chi Zhang set up the business after his restaurant failed during the covid-19 pandemic. He says that overseas workers also answer phone calls and monitor security-camera footage—doing so at a fraction of the cost of locals.

Virtual cashiers are a visible part of a much bigger trend: the rise of service exports from the developing world. Exports of goods are familiar. Factories churn out widgets, which are shipped to customers around the world. Yet improved international connectivity has made various kinds of outsourcing and digital commerce much easier. As a result, service exports have jumped by 60% over the past decade, reaching $7.9trn (7.5% of global GDP ) in 2023. The market for physical merchandise is even bigger, at $24trn, but has grown far more slowly, staying flat as a share of GDP .

What does this mean for countries hoping to get rich? Speaking in 2005 Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, observed that, “since the industrial revolution, no country has become a major economy without becoming an industrial power.” But since 2005, the world has changed. Manufacturing is now more capital-intensive, making it easier for China to retain its role as the world’s factory. In the past few years, Western countries have embraced industrial policy and protectionism in an attempt to boost domestic manufacturing. Policymakers in emerging markets are arguing about how best to respond.

At present, services are mostly exported by rich countries, where white-collar professionals often work across borders. Although China surpassed America as an exporter of goods in 2009, Uncle Sam still exports two-and-a-half times more services than his rival. Britain, which has fallen to 14th place in the global rankings when it comes to goods exports, remains the world’s second-largest services exporter.

But developing economies are starting to make a mark in the more advanced types of services that can be sold overseas. Many countries export audiovisual, computer and telecommunication services. In Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine these run to more than 3% of GDP . India is the best-performing Asian country in this category; its exports fall just short of 3% of GDP . In an economy of India’s size, that means a sizeable industry. The country’s five largest IT firms have a joint market capitalisation of nearly $350bn. It is also home to 1,600 global capability centres—technology and research centres for multinational firms—that employ 3m people. All told, India’s service exports account for nearly 5% of the world’s, up from 3% a decade ago.

The less techy category of “business and trade-related services”, which covers things such as accounting and human resources, is another area of growth. Estonia and the Philippines top the table here, with such exports accounting for over 5% of their GDP . Like India, the latter offers low labour costs, as well as a large English-speaking population. In many countries workers also take casual gigs online. These are hard to measure, but two-thirds of the freelancers on English-speaking platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr are based in emerging economies.

The barnet formula

Then there is tourism. Not every country can replicate Japan’s temples or Mexico’s beaches, but many are finding ways to entice visitors, such as with medical services. Dentistry, hip replacements and hair transplants are among the treatments on offer. Costa Rica, Croatia and Moldova export health services worth between 0.2% and 0.5% of their economic output. Armenia and Jordan manage 1% each. A few hours in Istanbul airport provides a display of the thriving industry, as men return home with their heads wrapped in plastic, fresh hair taking root underneath.

In the short term, it seems likely that service exports will keep growing. In 1992 Stan Shih, founder of Acer, a Taiwanese computer-maker, coined the term “smile curve” to describe how value added in the manufacturing process was rising faster in the first and third parts of making a product (design and distribution, respectively) than in the second stage (manufacturing). As manufacturing has become more competitive, the smile has deepened. Think of Apple, which designs and distributes iPhones, and collects the rents from its brand, but produces none of the devices itself. Its market capitalisation is more than $3trn, whereas Foxconn, which makes 70% of the firm’s iPhones, is worth just $91bn. Even more cheerful is the fact that the rise of remote work has made firms far more comfortable with outsourcing operations. After all, a remote employee is not that different from an outsourced one.

But will service exports raise living standards in the manner of manufacturing? As Dani Rodrik of Harvard University notes, industry has historically possessed advantages in three areas: it is more technologically intensive, produces internationally tradable goods and creates lots of jobs. Although services is closing the gap in the first two areas, manufacturing still offers more employment.

Start with technological growth. A factory in a poor country brings man and machine together, placing an unskilled worker at the tech frontier. Then, as the tech improves, the worker becomes still more productive. Tradable services cannot absorb unskilled workers in this manner. Yet as the World Bank has observed, since the 1990s labour-productivity growth in emerging economies outside of East Asia has risen at roughly the same rate in services as manufacturing—and services productivity has grown faster in emerging economies than rich ones. Moreover, artificial intelligence may soon provide service workers with another lift. Two experiments have found that AI tools help the least skilled knowledge workers catch up with more skilled ones when writing marketing copy and providing customer service.

Services are also closing the gap with manufacturing when it comes to tradability, albeit slowly. Before the internet, the ability to send products overseas was the main way in which goods differed from services. Trade allows exporters to reach much larger pools of demand and achieve economies of scale that would otherwise have been beyond them. Because goods trade has been stagnant as a share of global GDP since 2010, it has become more difficult for newcomers to compete. Services trade is booming, and thus more welcoming. But even at the growth rate of the past decade, it will take 15 years to reach half the value of trade in manufactured goods.

Job creation is an even thornier issue. Marc Lautier of the University of Rennes has calculated that, despite automation, the number of manufacturing jobs in 160 countries for which he has data has remained stable since 1991, accounting for 14% or so of total employment. The problem is that it has become more difficult for governments to attract these jobs. Manufacturing is not moving away from East Asian powerhouses at the same pace as it moved to them in the late 20th century, in part because modern factories require more capital and skill to build. Our analysis of labour-market data from 51 mostly emerging markets finds that only five—China, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Turkey and Vietnam—have 18% or more of their population employed in manufacturing, compared with 16 in 1990.

Growth in services offers only some consolation, because services do not tend to provide labour density. The World Bank notes that, since 1990, service jobs have risen from 40% to 50% of global employment, as workers left agriculture. But just 5-10% of emerging-market service jobs are in tradable, techy industries, compared with 15-20% in rich countries. India’s IT industry may garner $250bn in annual exports, worth nearly 8% of national GDP , which is on a par with manufactured exports. Yet it employs less than 10m people from a working-age population of around 1bn.

In the longer run, AI might cause problems. Models are best at well-defined tasks that do not need in-person context. That makes business services vulnerable. A report by Capital Economics, a consultancy, argues that AI could lead to the “slow demise” of India’s service exports, cutting growth by 0.3-0.4 percentage points a year over the next decade. The spread of communication tech has facilitated services outsourcing. Fresh technological change could, in time, be its undoing.

Despite the downsides of a services-oriented approach to development, especially when it comes to providing decent jobs in large numbers, developing economies simply have fewer choices today than they once did. Governments that want to boost growth will therefore have to focus on different things. Whereas they once had reason to ensure that workers could easily move from farms to factories, today they would be better off paying attention to human capital among future white-collar workers. Richard Baldwin of IMD Business School says that large, well-functioning cities will take on greater importance, too, because services often depend on agglomeration. Getting services right, especially those which can be sold overseas, is now a crucial condition for growth.  ■

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Virtual everything”

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