A Cautionary Tale - England and the Industrial Revolution

The Rocket - Famous Steam Locomotive

England, more than any country, started the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s.  And for over 150 years, England continued to discover new products and technologies.  Yet England eventually fell behind the United States and Germany in industrial technology, production efficiency, and economic growth.  What happened?

The seeds of England’s relative economic decline were there right at the beginning. Producing cotton cloth became England's great industry in the 19th Century.  But millwrights, mechanics with specialized knowledge of how to build wool and cotton mills and their machinery, felt frustrated because they seldom became part owners and couldn’t find financing to start their own mills.  Some illegally emigrated to the United States and France.  Much of the early American textile mill technology was due to English immigrants.  The first cotton spinning mills were designed by an English millwright financed by a Providence, Rhode Island merchant.  By the middle of the 19^th century, American cotton mills were more efficient than English mills; much of the venture capital for the industry was provided by Boston merchants. By the end of the 19th century, America produced more cotton cloth than England; American mills used newer weaving and spinning technology, were more efficient, and mass produced cheaper cloth.

The inability to constantly improve machinery and production processes was part of England's long term problem. An english company named Platt's invented and produced an automatic loom for weaving cloth. Platt's failed to find buyers in the home market but exported the new automatic looms to Japan and other countries. A new Japanese company named Toyoda bought Platt's looms and began improving their design. By 1930, Toyoda had improved Platt’s technology to the point where Toyoda was exporting power looms to England. Toyoda later changed its name to Toyota.  

England (actually, a Scot named James Watt) developed a much more efficient steam engine.  Later, the improved high pressure steam engine was developed at almost the same time in England and the United States (by Oliver Evans). This engine was critical to the development of the railroad locomotive, steamboats and later steamships.  The first general purpose railroad was developed in England in 1830. The first railroad locomotives in America were imported from England.  But within two years, American engineers and mechanics were modifying the English locomotive, making it more flexible and powerful. American railroad companies developed cheaper and faster ways to lay track. By 1860 over half the world’s track was in the United States and America was exporting railroad expertise and equipment.

Already in the 1850s, English engineers were alarmed by superior American production techniques. England began to fall behind the United States and Germany in the 1870s, at the start of the “Second Industrial Revolution.” Part of the problem was the inability of England to stay ahead in the new industries it helped to create.

England invented the two ways to produce large amounts of cheap steel.  But rather than building steel mills, the inventors licensed the processes to both English and foreign companies. One purchaser was Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant in America. Within thirty years, America was the world’s low-cost producer of steel and produced over half the world’s steel.

This had profound economic consequences.  Large amounts of cheap steel were crucial to the development of better machine tools, better machinery, better railroads, skyscrapers and automobiles.

An English chemist discovered the first synthetic dye for cloth.  But the development of the synthetic dye industry occurred in Germany.  It was the basis for the world dominant German chemical industry. German companies went on to discover and develop new chemical products, including high explosives that gave Germany a decided edge in artillery in World War I.

Germany and the United States developed the new technologies of electrical equipment.  America dominated the global production of automobiles. By 1900, the United States had replaced England as the largest economy in the world. Germany caught up by 1914; Germany was able to build a modern navy that challenged England's naval superiority.

The radio was invented and first exploited by an Italian immigrant in England.  But the radio industry full potential was developed in the United States by a Russian immigrant (David Sarnoff) using the financial resources and patents of four of America’s largest corporations.  It was a short technological step to develop television and computers. 

In World War I, England first developed and deployed the tank.  But its further development, and a strategy for modern warfare built around the tank, was done in Germany. In 1927, the English army spend more money on hay for horses than fuel for tanks. In 1940, England paid the price as German tanks destroyed the English army and its inferior tanks.

Before and during World War II, England discovered or developed a host of important new technologies – penicillin, radar, computers, jet engines.  But England did not have the resources or technology to develop, improve and mass produce these products. Knowledge of all four was shared with American companies during World War II and became the basis for large new American industries.

The structure of DNA was decoded in England.  Yet there were no English equivalents of early developers of drugs based on the new knowlege like the American companies Amgen and Genentech. There are now hundreds of American biotechnology companies creating one of the dominant industries of the 21th century.

Inventing a new product or process does not lead to economic leadership or long-term economic growth if the country does not have the human, production, organizational, and entrepreneurial resources to develop and continually improve them.  England did not start engineering, scientific and technical schools as did the U.S. and Germany; there was no English equivalent of MIT or the German scientific research universities.  Engineers (lumped together with mechanics) and entrepreneurs (often from dissenting religious groups or minority groups) were considered social inferiors, and “venture capital” (except for the railroad investment craze in the 1840s) went into trade and overseas investment.   

A further point.  Losing technological leadership can have serious consequences for a country’s political and military power.

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