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Where and when did the Industrial Revolution take place?How did the Industrial Revolution change economies?How did the Industrial Revolution change society?What were some important inventions of the Industrial Revolution?Who were some important inventors of the Industrial Revolution?Industrial Revolution, in modern history, the process of change from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. These technological changes introduced novel ways of working and living and fundamentally transformed society. This process began in Britain in the 18th century and from there spread to other parts of the world. Although used earlier by French writers, the term Industrial Revolution was first popularized by the English economic historian Arnold Toynbee (1852–83) to describe Britain’s economic development from 1760 to 1840. Since Toynbee’s time the term has been more broadly applied as a process of economic transformation than as a period of time in a particular setting. This explains why some areas, such as China and India, did not begin their first industrial revolutions until the 20th century, while others, such as the United States and western Europe, began undergoing “second” industrial revolutions by the late 19th century. A brief treatment of the Industrial Revolution follows. For full treatment of the Industrial Revolution as it occurred in Europe, see Europe, history of: The Industrial Revolution. Characteristics of the Industrial RevolutionThe main features involved in the Industrial Revolution were technological, socioeconomic, and cultural. The technological changes included the following: (1) the use of new basic materials, chiefly iron and steel, (2) the use of new energy sources, including both fuels and motive power, such as coal, the steam engine, electricity, petroleum, and the internal-combustion engine, (3) the invention of new machines, such as the spinning jenny and the power loom that permitted increased production with a smaller expenditure of human energy, (4) a new organization of work known as the factory system, which entailed increased division of labour and specialization of function, (5) important developments in transportation and communication, including the steam locomotive, steamship, automobile, airplane, telegraph, and radio, and (6) the increasing application of science to industry. These technological changes made possible a tremendously increased use of natural resources and the mass production of manufactured goods. There were also many new developments in nonindustrial spheres, including the following: (1) agricultural improvements that made possible the provision of food for a larger nonagricultural population, (2) economic changes that resulted in a wider distribution of wealth, the decline of land as a source of wealth in the face of rising industrial production, and increased international trade, (3) political changes reflecting the shift in economic power, as well as new state policies corresponding to the needs of an industrialized society, (4) sweeping social changes, including the growth of cities, the development of working-class movements, and the emergence of new patterns of authority, and (5) cultural transformations of a broad order. Workers acquired new and distinctive skills, and their relation to their tasks shifted; instead of being craftsmen working with hand tools, they became machine operators, subject to factory discipline. Finally, there was a psychological change: confidence in the ability to use resources and to master nature was heightened.  Britannica Quiz History: Fact or Fiction? Get hooked on history as this quiz sorts out the past. Find out who really invented movable type, who Winston Churchill called "Mum," and when the first sonic boom was heard.
To study them, we can classify these effects along temporal (short-term, long-term) and spatial (local, regional, global) scales. Short-term effects tend to be easier to recognize than long-term ones, but many of the richest effects are subtle and take a long time to be realized. Short- and Long-term EffectsTypical transport infrastructure improvements reduce effective distances between origins and destinations by reducing congestion, thereby lowering travel times. Travelers gain directly from travel time savings and lowered vehicle-operating costs. Companies enjoy direct efficiency gains from cheaper and more reliable freight services and reduced assembly and delivery costs. Cheaper and better transportation services provide incentives for firms to reorganize and reduce their inventories, sometimes to just-in-time levels. The advantages of scale economies occur as firms consolidate production and distribution sites and increase outputs. Assessments of short-term effects from improved transportation typically focus on benefits to and adjustments in transport-providing firms, but the changes made by transport-using firms can generate economy-wide adjustments and redistributions over As transport improvements lower costs and increase accessibility among various market actors (input suppliers, labor, and customers), market expansion and integration follow. Opportunities increase for exporting and importing goods, and new channels open for product, land, and labor markets. First, export expansion leads to higher levels of output, with higher sales covering operating costs as well as increasing profits. Second, imports put competitive pressure on local prices. Such pressures can weaken local monopolies and also can improve efficiency. The economy is constantly being restructured as firms enter and leave, making for leaner production processes, lower production costs, and higher productivity. Third, lowered transport costs and increased accessibility enlarge markets for labor and other inputs. Firms are able to draw labor from broader areas and with wider ranges of attributes, improving labor supply and lowering its costs. Similar effects occur when transport improvements open up new land for economic activities, as when the Interstate system accelerated suburbanization and when air transportation helped fill ski, beach, and golf resorts. Such economic effects rippling through the economy can be captured by assumptions of imperfect competition and the “new economic geography” theory. By taking advantage of declining transport costs and scale economies, a firm at a given location can enlarge its market area. Agglomeration economies—i.e., efficiencies resulting from ease of access among related neighboring firms—emerge as companies locate in one area, encouraged by a diverse, skilled labor supply, nearby business services, and growing markets. Cumulating processes reinforce the clustering, and regional specialization develops. Further, in activity clusters (cities) made possible by transport improvements, there appear “economies of diversity” (as elaborated by Jane Jacobs), which stimulate innovations, endogenous growth, and a rise in productivity. Sustained transportation improvements can also lead to major shifts in technology, new production structures, and improvements in aggregate efficiency. For example, the development first of canals and then of railroads in the 19th century made it possible for areas of the Midwest to shift to specialized agriculture and to export commodities to new Such long-term changes in the scale, composition, and location of economic activities induced by transport investments are more like developmental effects than growth effects. Growth, i.e., getting larger, is a more modest consequence. Development implies a dual structural shift: a new social and technical environment or a new set of economic opportunities emerges, and the pattern of relationships between the environment and social actors changes. Specialized commercial agriculture, the industrial revolution, and the globalization of production are all developmental consequences that would not have been possible without sustained improvements in transportation systems. This line of thought suggests that the effects of transport improvements are context dependent and not always analytically clear. So, for example, the outcome of a new transport corridor connecting two regions depends on the state of the preexisting transportation network, the state of economic development of the two regions, and the nature of competition in the markets functioning in both regions. Economic assessments of transport improvements must incorporate a broader range of interrelationships and data than are currently reviewed in typical transportation analyses. Transport Effects Over the Very Long-RunOver the very long run—encompassing many decades—sustained improvements in transport technology and infrastructure have promoted major structural changes in national economies. They continue to facilitate globalization processes in contemporary times, much as they did in earlier eras. Economic history suggests that transport technologies and infrastructures effect such structural changes hand in hand with parallel improvements in communication and production technologies as well as institutional and organizational reforms. Thus very-long-run transport effects are joint consequences of changes in transport systems, communication technologies, production systems, and institutions. The urban development effects of contemporary globalization parallel those of the earlier industrial and mercantile eras. In each era, the forces propelling globalization were twofold: a set of innovations in physical (transport, communication, and production) technologies and infrastructures and a set of nonphysical innovations in organizational and institutional forms. During the mercantile phase, the key transport innovation was new sailing technology (efficient, long-distance Caravels and Dutch Flutes), which, complemented by new information technologies (e.g., the sextant), made it possible to navigate without landmarks and thus opened Europe for long-distance international trade with Asia and the Americas. Trade was further stimulated by new means of payment—precious metals from the Americas and new financial institutions supported by the city administration of Amsterdam. World trade and the increasing division of labor led to the growth in size of important commercial cities, with Amsterdam emerging as the capital of world trade. Two types of problems emerged with the new industrial towns. First, income inequalities led to widespread poverty, low levels of education, and poor health among industrial workers. Since these workers lived in cities, these were largely problems in cities. Second, investments in urban infrastructure necessary to support a basic quality of life in dense urban Contemporary globalization is driven by a combination of new transport and communication technologies, knowledge-intensive production technologies, new open-trade institutions, neo-liberal ideologies, and logistical innovations facilitating flows of goods, services, capital, and knowledge. Global network corporations—the major agents of globalization—simultaneously exploit economies of scale in widening markets and economies of scope in information, financial, and marketing networks, while maintaining production units in urban regions around the world to take advantage of lower costs. Global capital thus uses urban regions as organizational structures to enhance returns, while also seeking infrastructure investments that improve Smaller urban areas, less endowed with global accessibility and knowledge, fare differently in the competition for global production locations. The ability of a smaller urban region to participate in the global division of labor depends on what cost advantages it can offer or what growth strategies it can develop that allow it to export to global markets. The evolution of globally competitive urban centers shifts important aspects of economic policy to the urban level, with an increasing role for urban economic policy. ConclusionsThis essay advances two ideas. First, the economic effects of transport improvements are dependent on the context in which the improvements are made. Economic outcomes vary according to the state of the preexisting transportation network, the state of economic development, and the Further ReadingsManuel Castells. The Rise of Network Society. 2nd Edition (London: Blackwell, 2000). Masahisa Fujita, Paul Krugman, and Anthony Albert Hirschman. The Strategy of Economic Development (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1958). Peter J. Hugill. World Trade Since 1431: Geography, Technology, and Capitalism (John Hopkins Press, 1995). Jane Jacobs. The Economy of Cities (London: Penguin, 1969). T.R. Lakshmanan and Lata Chatterjee, “Urbanization and Environmental Quality,” Washington, DC, Association of American Geographers, Resource Paper RP 77-1, 1977. T.R. Lakshmanan and William P. Anderson, “Transportation Infrastructure, Freight Services Sector and Economic Growth,” A white paper prepared for the USDOT, Federal Highway Administration, 2002. T.R. Lakshmanan and Lata Chatterjee, “The Entrepreneurial City in the Global Marketplace,” Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2005. Peter Mackie and John Nellthorp, “Cost Benefit Analysis in Transport,” Handbook of Transportation Systems and Traffic Control, K.J. Button and D.A. Hensher, eds. (Oxford: Pergamon, 2001). T.R. LakshmananT. R. Lakshmanan is a Professor of Geography and Environment at the Center for Transportation Studies at Boston University (). Lata R. ChatterjeeLata R. Chatterjee is a Professor of Geography and Environment at the Center for Transportation Studies at Boston University (). Related PostsWhat impact did the Industrial Revolution have on transportation?The invention of the railroad and the steam powered locomotive opened up a whole new world in transportation. Now trains could travel wherever tracks could be built. Transportation was no longer limited to rivers and canals.
What was the major form of transportation during the industrial revolution?Roads, canals, and railways were three major components of transportation improved during the first industrial revolution. People used the roads as the basic way to transport the goods from one place to another.
What were the improvements in transportation during the industrial revolution?The expansion of internal American trade greatly increased with the adoption of canals, steamboats, and railroads. These collective advances in technology became known as the Transportation Revolution.
What were the greatest impacts of the transportation revolution?The Transportation Revolution's greatest event was the opening up of greater movement in the north east through the growth of the canal system. For example, the Erie Canal that connected the Hudson River and Lake Erie was astounding in its effect.
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