zation. While historians agree that industrialization began in earnest in the second half of the eighteenth century in Great Britain, there is some dispute as to which decade is the true starting point. Some argue that the 1760s is the actual beginning, for by that time the momentum for change was beginning to build. Most, however, agree that the 1780s is the more accurate time frame, for it was then that "all the relevant statistical indices took that sudden, sharp, almost vertical turn upwards which marks the 'take-off'" (Habsbawm, p. 46). It was during this decade that the evolutionary forces that had been gathering for centuries became forces for revolution.
That the Industrial Revolution began in England and not in France or some other nation on the Continent is due to a combination of political, social, and economic factors. More than any of the other nations, Britain was "in a position to take full advantage of the economic opportunities opened up by the Commercial Revolution" (Schapiro, p. 21). Thanks to centuries of commercial expansion and colonization, Britain was equipped with the necessary elements -– capital, labor, a
...