It is now the 21st century and experts are still revolutionizing businesses, finance and marketing, telecommunications, the pharmaceutical field, and other industries like no other in history.
Before all of these remarkable achievements of mankind, there was a certain period in history that led to these massive transformations in various fields of entrepreneurship we now call “Industrial Revolution”.
Historians agreed that this “revolution” started in Britain more than 200 years ago (1760-1850). The dramatic transformation of Great Britain from a mere cottage industry before the “eve” of the revolution was characterized basically by manual labor in production of basic goods, such as clothing and other goods which were mainly made in homes.
Prior to the revolution, the tools and methods of the trade for agriculture, rearing of live stocks and the cultivation of other farm products were then primitive in today’s standard. The means of transportation were typically horses and other cattle. Although some countries of today still use conventional methods in farming, the ways and means were largely different before the advent of the industrial revolution.
What triggers the Industrial Revolution?
The abundance of iron ore and coal made the industrial revolution possible in Britain. Inventions of machineries during the latter part of the 18th century gave Britain the advancement in manufacturing and agricultural innovations. The 1700s saw Britain as a colonial power, politically stable and the leading manufacturer of consumer goods where as the majority of raw materials came from its colonies. At this time, British goods were in demand in bulk domestically and among the colonies. This condition gave rise to the mechanization of industries and the factory system is believed to be initiated by merchants and entrepreneurs of the colonial power. Soon, the world followed suit.
The introduction of the steam engine for locomotives during the early 1800s was one of the factors that triggered the continuation of the industrial revolution in Britain. This made the transport of goods easily among boundaries.
Banking, trading and communication during the “revolution”
The Industrial Revolution saw the establishment of stock exchanges in London during the 1770s. In the United States, the New York stock exchange was founded during the early part of 1790s. The telegraph was invented in Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution. In 1837, William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone, both British, were given a patent for the first electrical telegraph and in 1866 the first telegraph cable was laid across the Atlantic linking Britain to some of its current and former colonies. This made communications across the globe easier.
The Industrial Revolution also gave rise to a new method of transacting money: the bank. The industrialists of Britain were primarily the catalysts who began the dramatic turnaround in industrializing the country and the whole world.
Effects of the Industrial Revolution on a global scale
Today, most of the countries of the world have their own stock exchanges that raise capital to businesses, organize savings for investment, and promote the growth of a company, give small businesses the chance to thrive and grow and as a gauge for a country’s economic might or the lack of it.
The machineries, tools and manufacturing methods that were invented and developed during the Industrial Revolution for different manufacturing processes became the precursors of machines of today.
Certainly, the Industrial Revolution was and still is a reality being accepted by the entire world for centuries and the truth is: it is still evolving even in cyberspace.
