1588 "The Spanish-English War" was one of the most important naval battles in human history, which determined the fate of Europe in early modern times and also influenced the world in early modern times to some extent. Britain's victory in the 1588 naval battle between Britain and the West was a victory of defeating the strong with the weak, which once again showed the strength of the nation-state under the rule of kingship. For the first time, the island countries, which have long been outside the mainstream civilization in Europe, made a voice to the European continent as a powerful country and quickly entered the center of the world's maritime hegemony and commercial hegemony. Britain was actually a small country with a small population at the end of 16. Britain's strength was finally achieved through commercial and colonial economic expansion. Continued overseas expansion and colonial trade promoted the demand for goods; Scientific awareness and market awareness have improved the overall understanding level of the British. With all kinds of joint efforts, Britain became the first industrialized country in the world, created a far-reaching liberal economic model, established a global "empire that never sets", and led the world's development from the middle of18th century to the middle of19th century. Before the bourgeois revolution, Britain was still a feudal and autocratic agricultural country, and the feudal aristocratic group headed by the king was the ruler of this country. China has a population of 5.5 million, of which 4,654.38 million people live in rural areas. The largest city, London, has a population of only 200,000, and the population of other cities does not exceed 20,000 at most. Therefore, it can be explained from the following reasons that the industrial revolution can occur in Britain first.
(1) Establishment of constitutional monarchy
1688 After the victory of the British bourgeois revolution, William was declared king of England by Parliament after agreeing to accept the provisions of the Bill of Rights proposed by Parliament in 1689, and was called William III. The main contents of the Bill of Rights are as follows: 1. The king shall not infringe on the taxation power of parliament; 2. The king has no right to annul laws passed by Parliament; 3. Without the consent of Parliament, the king may not organize a standing army; 4. People have the right to petition; 5. The king shall not interfere with the freedom of speech of Parliament, and shall not detain members for political acts; 6. Parliament must meet regularly. 170 1 year, the parliament passed the law of succession to the throne. The essence of this bill is a supplement to the Bill of Rights. The decree of the king must be signed by the relevant minister before it can take effect. All ministers must carry out the resolutions of parliament. If they don't agree with the resolution of parliament, the ministers must resign. According to this bill, ministers are responsible to the parliament but not to the king, and the king of England becomes a virtual monarch, and the political power completely falls into the hands of the parliament dominated by the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois upstarts, and the British constitutional monarchy is finally established.
The establishment of constitutional monarchy, cabinet system and modern parliamentary system is the result of British bourgeois revolution, which meets the needs of British domestic political and economic development and thus becomes the fundamental guarantee for Britain to develop capitalism and carry out industrial revolution.
(2) The completion of primitive accumulation of capital.
The emergence and development of capitalist mode of production need two basic conditions: first, there must be a large number of hired workers who have only personal freedom and no means of production; The second is to concentrate a large number of means of production and monetary wealth in the hands of a few people and turn them into capital. The process of creating these two conditions is the process of primitive accumulation of capital. The primitive accumulation of capital is different from the later accumulation of capital. The former occurred before the establishment of capitalist mass production, which is the premise and starting point of capitalist mode of production. The latter occurred in the process of capitalist mass production. Therefore, the former is called primitive accumulation of capital and the latter is called capital accumulation. Primitive accumulation of capital in Britain was mainly accomplished through enclosure movement, colonial plunder and China's main ways to realize primitive accumulation of capital, such as the national debt system, the establishment of banks and joint-stock companies, and the strict tax system.
(3) Foreign trade
Since the second half of the16th century, the British government has been pursuing a mercantilist policy. In order to develop trade, the British government strongly supports the shipbuilding industry and supports the establishment of franchise trading companies overseas. Among them, the East India Company established by Britain in India in 1600 and the Hudson Company established in North America in 1670 have the greatest influence. Britain adopts compulsory trade in India. If Indian farmers are forced to grow opium and export it to other countries for high profits, China is also a victim. Britain buys Indian rice at a low price and sells it to other countries for huge profits.
On the one hand, British colonists brutally exterminated the aborigines of American and Australian colonies, on the other hand, they carried out predatory trade. Hudson Company, which was established in North America by Britain in 1670, saw its income increase sevenfold to 1720. In this way, Britain made a lot of wealth and money flow back to China through forced and predatory trade.
It can be seen that after the British bourgeois revolution, from the middle of the17th century to the18th century, the British government completed two prerequisites of expanding capitalist production-a large number of free labor and a large number of capital through enclosure movement, overseas colonial plunder, robber trade, slave trade and exploitation of domestic people.
(4) Mature production technology.
As early as15th century, semi-agricultural and semi-industrial handicrafts were very common in rural England. At first, it was mainly wool textile industry. By the end of 15, wool spinning merchants shuttling between urban and rural areas gradually linked individual family handicrafts to form early wool spinning handicraft workshops in order to speed up production. This manual workshop has two forms: decentralized and centralized. /kloc-in the 0/6th century, scattered handicraft workshops dominated. The expansion and technological progress of British handicraft workshops are closely related to a large number of craftsmen immigrants from other European countries. At the end of the Middle Ages, the technical level of handicrafts in France, the Netherlands and other countries surpassed that of Britain, and a large number of skilled craftsmen appeared.
However, the constant religious wars persecuted a large number of Protestants, so many skilled craftsmen who believed in Protestantism fled to Britain to take refuge. After these skilled craftsmen flooded into Britain, they played a great role in the improvement and innovation of British handicraft technology. With the deepening of the enclosure movement in Britain, more and more farmers lost their land, which provided a large number of cheap labor with various skills for British businessmen, so centralized handicraft workshops gradually developed. As for scattered handicraft workshops, it is more common. All this means that the British capitalist structure has matured within the feudal society.
Handicraft workshops, England, generally expanded in18th century. Due to the development of handicraft workshops, the technical division of labor is more refined, and the operation is divided into various details, thus making the specialized work more sophisticated and skilled. In this way, small and simple production tools suitable for various specialized jobs have emerged, and the difference between skilled workers and unskilled workers with high skills has also emerged. With the development of division of labor in manual workshops, tools have been improved into many tools only suitable for special actions, which makes it possible for these tools to be connected into machines. In addition, handicraft workshops have trained a large number of skilled and experienced workers, and their accumulated production experience has directly promoted the invention of various machines. All these have created the material premise for the invention of machines. Secondly, at that time, the production of British handicraft workshops could not meet the needs of domestic and foreign markets, and technical transformation became an urgent need, which put forward the historical task of inventing machines.
(5) the progress of natural science
The invention of machines must be based on the progress of natural science. /kloc-Before the 6th century, the whole of Europe was influenced by religious theology and scholasticism, and the development of science and technology was seriously hindered. By the end of 16 and the beginning of 17, the British bourgeoisie had matured. Under the influence of the Renaissance, people's minds were liberated and natural science made remarkable achievements. Francis Bacon (156 1 year-1626) has the greatest impact. He is both a philosopher and a natural scientist. Bacon believes that the task of philosophy is to go deep into nature, study and reflect nature, and gain knowledge from it, thus promoting the progress of science and technology. Bacon put forward the slogan "knowledge is power". In Bacon's view, knowledge is not only empty talk that is seriously divorced from reality like scholasticism, but also can not be replaced by religious belief. Knowledge becomes power because it can play a role in understanding and utilizing nature and promote the development of production. Bacon advocated understanding nature through scientific experiments. He believes that experiment is the most effective way to observe, understand and form knowledge and obtain new discoveries. Bacon's thought had a positive impact on British natural scientists, enlivened the British natural science field in the17th century and liberated the productive forces.
Science has no national boundaries. During this period, except Britain, the whole of Europe also made many achievements in natural science, which had a great influence on the progress of natural science in Britain. For example, the Polish astronomer Mikolaj Copernic (1473- 154 1) founded the "sun-centered theory"; The French mathematician rene descartes (1596—1650) invented analytic geometry; Italian scientist galileo galilei (1564- 1642) made a great breakthrough in dynamics. British scientist isaac newton (1643-1727) inherited and developed Galileo's scientific breakthrough and made great achievements in many fields. Engels said: "Newton founded scientific astronomy because he invented the law of universal gravitation, scientific optics because he decomposed light, scientific mathematics because he founded binomial theorem and infinite theory, and scientific mechanics because he knew the essence of force." Among these scientific achievements, the law of universal gravitation and the three laws of mechanics have had a great and direct impact on the development of natural science and the rise of industrial revolution. The natural scientific achievements made during this period laid a solid scientific theoretical foundation for the industrial revolution.
(6) New economic theory guides change.
Whenever a new mode of production and social system is born and reflected in ideology, it is always guided by new economic theory. This new theory speaks loudly for the new mode of production and social system, publicizes its advantages and guides people to a new life. The new economic theory has played an inestimable role in consolidating and developing the new mode of production and social system. Before and at the beginning of the industrial revolution, bourgeois economists did a lot of public opinion work for the establishment of the capitalist system and the arrival of the industrial revolution.
/kloc-in the middle of the 0/7th century, after the British bourgeois revolution, the domestic and foreign markets expanded rapidly. With the growth of social wealth, it is no longer simply manifested in the accumulation of money, but also in the growth of production, which is manifested in the continuous expansion of social material wealth created in the production process. Therefore, the industrial bourgeoisie opposes state intervention in economic life and restrictions on production. With the focus of bourgeois interests shifting from the circulation field to the production field, mercantilism theory tends to collapse, and new economic theories emerge as the times require. This new economic theory is the classical political economy of the bourgeoisie and the ideological reflection of the interests of the industrial bourgeoisie. The most representative is Adam Smith's economics (1723- 1790). The main representative work of Adam Smith's economics is the study of The Wealth of Nations. This book can be said to be the first systematic and complete work on bourgeois political economy, and it is the ideological embodiment of the interests of the industrial bourgeoisie. It greatly encouraged the vigorous development of the industrial revolution. The publication of The Wealth of Nations provides a theoretical basis for the rule of the industrial bourgeoisie. It had a far-reaching impact on the development of the British industrial bourgeoisie and became the clarion call for the arrival of the industrial revolution era.
(7) the emergence of emerging industries
The British wool industry was introduced by Dutch workers in the13rd century and14th century. In the following hundreds of years, the wool textile industry developed widely in urban and rural areas of Britain and became a national industry in Britain. /kloc-in the middle of the 0 th/6 th century, the export of British wool products accounted for 80% of all export commodities. By the beginning of17th century, the manufacture of wool products had spread all over the country, and about15 of the population was engaged in this business. In addition, some new enterprises unrelated to guilds, such as cotton textile industry, coal mining industry, ironmaking industry, glass industry and shipbuilding industry, have also developed. By the beginning of17th century, centralized handicraft workshops and scattered handicraft workshops had become extremely common in Britain. However, the quality of British industrial products was not as good as that of some western European countries at that time. At that time, British coarse wool was going to Holland for final processing. Britain's metallurgical, mining and coal mining industries just started from16th century to17th century. In terms of ore mining quantity and processing technology, in the first half of17th century, Britain was not as good as the Czech Republic and Sweden, and the production level of some industrial sectors was not as good as that of France. However, the emergence and growth of British capitalism has its own characteristics, that is, the capitalist relationship goes deep into the countryside, which seriously destroys the economic foundation of British feudal society and lays a solid foundation for the rapid development of capitalism.
/kloc-In the 8th century, although wool industry was the most developed industry in Britain, it developed from the late feudal society and was strictly controlled by the government. The purpose of the government is to ensure the quality and maintain the reputation of the national industry in the world market, but at the same time, it also seriously hinders the technical update of the wool textile industry. Make the production process of this industry rigid and rigid, and become a conservative, lifeless and traditional production department. The cotton textile industry in Britain is different. It is a new industrial sector. British cotton textile industry was introduced by Dutch technicians in 1588, and its production center was not established in Lancashire until 17 century. Prior to this, its production bases were scattered in rural areas, not bound by guild and government regulations, and there were no rules and regulations and traditional obstacles in production. Therefore, the cotton textile industry has a good environment for technological innovation. /kloc-before the 0/8th century, the raw materials of the British cotton textile industry were mainly imported, and the production technology was quite backward. In the international market, the product quality is not as good as India, and the price of similar products is 50%-60% higher than India. The situation of British cotton textile industry is very difficult. In order to survive and resist Indian cotton fabrics, British cotton industry has to strive to improve product quality, reduce production costs and enhance market competitiveness. Therefore, technological innovation is imperative. Secondly, cotton fabric is suitable for ordinary people to wear every day, and its price is lower than wool fabric, which belongs to low-grade goods and has a very broad market prospect at home and abroad. It can be seen that the cotton textile industry is more suitable for inventing new machines, popularizing new technologies and creating new products. Therefore, by the 1960s of 18, the British industrial revolution began with the technological revolution of the emerging cotton textile industry.
The process of industrial revolution is that invention promotes invention, and various industrial sectors have a chain reaction. From light industry to heavy industry, from working machine to engine, they promote each other and finally form a complete system of machine production. The British industrial revolution lasted about one hundred years from the middle of18th century to the middle of19th century.
In short, it can be said that the industrial revolution is the result of the interaction of various factors, rather than a simple series of arrangements can solve the problem. We can see in other European countries that they have one or more such factors, some of which are even remarkable. However, only Britain has such a rich combination of various factors, and the accumulation of these factors has triggered a chain reaction, that is, an incremental and self-sustaining technological development process, which is the British industrial revolution.