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DiScOvErInG HiStOrY 4. Access to coal and iron


Factories were set up using coal to power machines with engines. These engines were made from iron. Both coal and iron were plentiful in Britain. Large mines were built in Wales and Yorkshire to dig coal and iron to keep factories supplied. Britain’s access to cheap and plentiful supplies of coal and iron was a major reason why the Industrial Revolution happened there first rather than in Germany, France or any other European power at that time.


5. British inventors


During the Renaissance, Italy produced more artists than any other country. Similarly, Britain produced more inventors during the Industrial Revolution than anywhere else. Perhaps the most important of those inventions was the steam engine. This was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712 and improved by James Watt in 1763. It powered trains and ships and also machines in factories.


6. New banks, more loans


The huge amounts of money made by British people living in the colonies and trading in raw materials meant secure institutions were needed to deposit and borrow money. In 1694 the Bank of England was established to provide a stable system of depositing and lending money. Other banks also opened at this time and these banks provided loans for many of the new businesses in Britain.


RECALL


1. How did improved farming methods help increase the population of Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?


2. What is vaccination and how was it invented? 3. Name two raw materials that were imported into Britain from its colonies. 4. What two materials were mined in Yorkshire and Wales? 5. Name a British inventor and his invention.


C. The Agricultural Revolution


Between 1750 and the mid 1800s Britain experienced what became known as the agricultural revolution. Because of the growth of population it was necessary for more food to be produced.


Medieval System of Farming


During the Middle Ages, farmers used the open-field rotation method of farming (see Chapter 4: Life and Death in Medieval Times, page 94). Even by the middle of the eighteenth century, this method still had not changed. This method of farming had a number of disadvantages: 1. To allow the soil to regain its nutrients, every year a third of the land was left fallow. This was a great waste of land.


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