The Industrial Revolution had several roots, one of which was a commercial revolution that, beginning as far back as the sixteenth century, accompanied Europe’s expansion overseas. Both exports and imports showed spectacular growth, particularly in England and France. An increasingly larger portion of the stepped-up commercial activity was the result of trade with overseas colonies. Imports included a variety of new beverages, spices, and ship’s goods around the world and brought money flowing back. Europe’s economic institutions, particularly those in England, were strong, had wealth available for new investment, and seemed almost to be waiting for some technological breakthrough that would expand their profit-making potential even more.

The breakthrough came in Great Britain, where several economic advantages created a climate especially favorable to the encouragement of new technology. One was its geographic location at the crossroads of international trade. Internally, Britain was endowed with easily navigable natural waterway, which helped its trade and communication with the world. Beginning in the 1770’s, it enjoyed a boom in canal building, which helped make its domestic market more accessible. Because water transportation was the cheapest means of carrying goods to market, canals reduced prices and thus increased consumer demand. Great Britain also had rich deposits of coal that fed the factories springing up in industrial and consumer goods.

Another advantage was Britain’s large population of rural, agricultural wage earners, as well as cottage workers, who had the potential of being more mobile than peasants of some other countries. Eventually they found their way to the cities or mining communities and provided the human power upon which the Industrial Revolution was built. The British people were also consumers; the absence of internal tariffs, such as those that existed in France or Italy or between the German states, made Britain the largest free-trade area in Europe. Britain’s relatively stable government also helped create an atmosphere conducive to industrial progress.

Great Britain’s better-developed banking and credit system also helped speed the industrial progress, as did the fact that it was the home of an impressive array of entrepreneurs and inventors. Among them were a large number of nonconformists whose religious principles encouraged thrift and industry rather than luxurious living and who tended to pour their profits back into their business, thus providing the basis for continued expansion.

A precursor to the Industrial Revolution was a revolution in agricultural techniques. Ideas about agricultural reform developed first in Holland, where as early as the mid-seventeenth century, such modern methods as crop rotation, heavy fertilization, and diversification were all in use. Dutch peasant farmers were known throughout Europe for their agricultural innovations, but as British markets and opportunities grew, the English quickly learned from them. As early as the seventeenth century the Dutch were helping them drain marshes and fens where, with the help of advanced techniques, they grew new crops. By the mid-eighteenth century new agricultural methods as well as selective breeding of livestock had caught on throughout the country.

Much of the increased production was consumed by Great Britain’s burgeoning population. At the same time, people were moving to the city, partly because of the enclosure movement; that is, the fencing of common fields and pastures in order to provide more compact, efficient privately held agricultural parcels that would produce more goods and greater profits. In the sixteenth century enclosures were usually used for creating sheep pastures, but by the eighteenth century new farming techniques made it advantageous for large landowners to seek enclosures in order to improve agricultural production. Between 1714 and 1820 over 6 million acres of English land were enclosed. As a result, many small, independent farmers were forced to sell out simply because they could not compete. Non-landholding peasants and cottage workers, who worked for wages and grazed cows or pigs on the village common, were also hurt when the common was no longer available. It was such people who began to flock to the cities seeking employment and who found work in the factories that would transform the nation and, the world.

工业革命有几个根源，其中之一是商业革命，它早在6世纪就伴随着欧洲的海外扩展出现了。出口和进口都出现了惊人的发展，尤其是在英国和法国。比重不断增加的快速商业行为是与海外殖民地贸易的结果。进口的商品包括各种新型饮料酒水，香料，以及食品。同时，不断发展的出口市场把欧洲的纺织品、五金器具、枪炮、船舶和相关商品带到全世界，然后把金钱带回来。欧洲的经济机构，尤其是那些在英国的，非常强大，拥有大量财富用于新投资，而且似乎是在等待着那些可以进一步扩大他们营利潜能的技术突破。 技术突破发生在大不列颠，那里的几个经济优势营造了一种特别适合新技术出现的氛围。其中之一就是它的地理位置，位于国际贸易的十字路口。在国内，不列颠拥有易于航行的天然水系，有助于它和外部世界的贸易和交流。从18世纪70年代开始，不列颠的运河建造繁荣发展，使得本国市场更易进入。因为水运是把货物运输到市场上的最便宜方式，运河的开通降低了价格，从而导致消费者需求增加。大不列颠还有丰富的煤炭资源储量，可以满足工业区不断涌现的工厂的需求；同时还有丰富的铁矿石储量，可以为制造铁路设施、工具和各种各样的工业产品和日用品提供原材料。 另一个优势在于不列颠庞大的农业雇佣人口和家庭手工业从业人口，这些人有可能比其他一些国家的农民更加具有移动性。最终，他们都设法来到城市或矿业社区，为工业革命提供必要的人力资源。英国人同时也是消费者，由于国内没有关税（比如在法国或意大利或者是德国的不同州之间就有关税），不列颠因而成为了欧洲最大的自由贸易区。不列颠相对稳定的政府也有助于创造一个有利于工业发展的氛围。 大不列颠发展良好的银行和信贷体系也有助于加速工业发展，事实也是如此，它是大批企业家和发明家的圣地。他们之中有大部分人不是国教徒。这些非国教徒的宗教信仰崇尚节俭和勤勉，而不是奢华的生活；他们还倾向于将利润重新投入生意中，为持续扩张奠定基础。 工业革命的先驱之一是农业技术的革新。农业改革的理念最早在17世纪中期出现于荷兰，像轮作、重肥和多样种植等现代方式均在使用。荷兰农民在欧洲以农业创新而著称，但是随着不列颠的市场发展和机会增多，英国人迅速向他们学习。早在17世纪，荷兰人就帮助他们建设沼气池，有了先进技术的帮助，他们种植了新作物。到18世纪中期，新的种植方法和家畜选育方法已全国普及。 增加的商品中有很多是被大不列颠新增的人口所消耗的。与此同时，人们向城市迁移，部分是因为圈地运动——也就是，把大量公用田地和草场围起来，形成更紧凑、更高效的为私人所拥有的农业捆绑组合，从而生产更多商品，获得更大利润。在16世纪，圈地主要是用来种植羊吃的草，但是到了18世纪，新的耕作技术对于为了提高作物产量而进行圈地的大地主来说非常有益。1714-1820年间，英国有超过百万英亩的土地被圈。结果，大量小农、独立农民被迫变卖全部财产，仅仅因为他们无力竞争。雇农和家庭手工业者，通过工作获得工资，在村庄的公用地养牛或猪，而当不能在公用地上放牧时他们的利益也会受到损害。正是由于这些人，他们涌入城市谋生，进入工厂工作，从而改变这个国家，最终甚至改变整个世界。