Why Was Britain First to Industrialise

Why was Britain the first nation to industrialize? Britain began to industrialize around the 1750’s and it continued to progress until the mid nineteenth century. There were many factors that triggered Britain to industrialize. For example, its vast population growth and gradual advancement in technology, nevertheless there were also pre-existent natural resources that appeared advantageous to Britain’s industrial expansion. Furthermore this essay will demonstrate some of the major causes of the industrial growth and analyze to what extent their aid was significant for Britain’s transformation into the first industrial nation. The population of Britain remained more or less stable up until the 1740’s after which it began to increase decade by decade. Some historians have argued that population growth acted as one of the main causes for the industrialization, others saw a completely different scenario where the industrialization was in fact what caused the population to grow in the first place. Population growth after the 1740’s may have been the result of the remarkable agricultural harvest periods between 1730 and 1760 when the price of meat and grain was relatively low . The wages of those living and working in the country side were lower than of those from industrial towns so when it came to cheap, yet nutritional food availability, it was very rare in the countryside, this is perhaps why their population remained stable. On the other hand in industrial towns fertility rates went up. Here, nutritional food was much more affordable and available, so there is a clear implication that a better diet and higher wages encouraged higher fertility rates and the subsequent population growth that occurred in industrial areas. The population growth meant that the demand for manufacturing goods would rise as there were more people to feed and clothe, hence requiring a larger labor force in order to allow greater productivity. Sweden and Ireland

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