assumed that both these peoples were well acquainted with them; and indeed something of this kind must have existed ever since international commerce began. Certainly bills of exchange were current among the commercial states of Italy in the early part of the fourteenth century, and they were also known about the middle of the same century in England. The use of foreign bills is said to have preceded that of inland. At first used only as a means of remittance, they gradually came to serve many other purposes as their use became better understood and their validity recognised; so that, in time, they formed a paper currency of great utility. They were the more useful as bank notes were not much issued by banks till the beginning of the seventeenth century; for at first most banks (e.g. those of Vienna and Amsterdam) were only banks of deposit, not of issue. In fact, it is only comparatively recently that paper money has been very much used. CHAPTER V THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE CONTINENTAL WAR (1770-1890) [Preliminary Note.-Fuller details concerning the industrial revolution and its effects, and concerning English industry of this period generally, will be found in the author's Industrial History of England, pp. 143-223.] 152. A Period of Revolution.-We have now to pause for a time in the general history of Europe to notice a great change that has transformed not only the commercial history of England but of the world. We have in fact arrived at an epoch of tremendous changes in every department of life-political, social, and industrial. We have come to a time of revolutions-of the great political and social revolution in France that began in 1789; and of the equally great, though almost silent, industrial revolution in England that began about the time that we lost our American colonies. This was the revolution in industry and commerce brought about by the great inventions of the last half of the eighteenth century, inventions that increased our powers of production in mining, manufactures, and agriculture more than a hundred-fold; made England the richest nation in the world; and helped her to keep up a political struggle against France and (for a time) the rest of Europe that placed her in the front of the European states both in commerce and politics. 153. English Commerce from 1782 to 1792.-If we look at the state of English commerce during the few years which intervened between the close of the War of American Independence and the Continental war-which decade is contemporaneous with the beginning of the industrial revolution-we find that our foreign trade had increased immensely; in fact it had nearly doubled itself in ten years. In 1782, the last year of the American War, our imports were about ten millions and a quarter, our exports just over thirteen millions. In 1792 our imports were nearly twenty millions and our exports nearly twenty-five.1 The condition of the country at home was very satisfactory. The population was about 8,000,000, perhaps rather less; and of these very nearly one-half were employed, either as labourers, farmers, or landowners, in agriculture. This shows us that England was still mainly an agricultural country, for nowadays the proportion of those engaged in agriculture is not anything like so great, but on the contrary the majority are engaged in manufactures and mining. Nevertheless even at that time nearly half the population (i.e. 3,000,000) was occupied in manufactures, which shows us how much these industries had grown. But it must be remembered that many people combined both manufacturing and agricultural pursuits, and that the preponderating importance of agriculture is proved by the fact that the income of the agriculturists was more than double that of the manufacturers, being sixty-six as against twenty-seven millions per annum. 154. The Domestic System of Manufactures and the Great Inventions.—Manufactures, too, were conducted in a very different manner from that in which they are now carried on. People worked under what is called the "domestic system," that is, not in factories, but in their own homes, in their domestic circle, aided by their family and apprentices. Consequently production was much more limited than at present; and so, though about three million people were employed, nothing like the amount of the manufactures of the present was turned out. But now this old domestic system, which had lasted ever since England had done any manufacturing at all, was suddenly changed. 1 The exact figures are: 1782. Imports, £10,341,628; Exports, £13,009,458 1792. £19,659,358; A series of remarkable inventions was made, and these inventions came very rapidly one after another. The first in order of invention, though not the first to be used in manufacturing, was the steam engine of James Watt; who took out his patent in the year 1769, memorable as the year when Wellington and Bonaparte were born. It was first used in mining operations, and was not introduced into factories till 1785, when a Nottinghamshire cotton-spinner set up one in his works. The other inventions, though made later, were used first. In 1770 James Hargreaves patented the "spinning-jenny," a machine by which many threads could be spun at once, instead of by the slow process of the single-thread hand spinning-wheel. In 1771 Arkwright set up a mill in which he used a "water-frame,” a spinning machine worked by water-power. A few years later both these inventions were superseded by Crompton's “mule,” which combined the principles of both of them (1779). These inventions greatly increased the facility of spinning both wool and cotton; so much so that the weavers could not keep pace with the spinners. But soon the weavers also were aided by inventors. The "power loom "" was patented in 1785, and in the same year steampower was applied by Watt to spinning and weaving operations alike. This was the real, practical beginning of the industrial revolution. The new ideas were first made use of by cotton manufacturers; and so rapidly was production increased that in the fifteen years 1788 to 1803 the cotton trade trebled itself. 155. Development of Coal and Iron Mining.—But this novel development in manufacturing textile goods implied and necessitated a corresponding development in coal and iron mining; for the new inventions required steam-power and machinery to work them. Consequently this period sees also a complete revolution in our mining industries. Hitherto coal had hardly been worked at all in any large quantities, and that for a very good reason-there was no means of pumping water out of the mines, except by the inadequate air-pump, till Watt's inventions enabled steam to be applied. And, as there was not a sufficient supply of coal, there had not hitherto been any adequate means of smelting iron. Wood had been used for this purpose for centuries, but the use of so much timber was destroying some of our finest forests; so that its use was frequently forbidden. This waste of timber was most noticeable in the case of the Sussex Wealden, the forests of which owe their destruction almost entirely to the iron and glass manufactures formerly carried on in that district. Of course I do not mean to imply that iron and coal were not mined at all, but the output was comparatively insignificant till the second half of the eighteenth century. But now, at last, Englishmen were awaking to a sense of the immense treasures which their soil contained, and many inventions were made in the smelting and manufacturing of iron, which created enormous wealth both for the manufacturers and the country at large. 156. Improvement in Means of Transit.—One more invention of this epoch was necessary to complete the revolution of industry, and that was an improvement in the means of transit. The roads of England, which had been in the Middle Ages fairly good, were now entirely worn out. Many of the newer roads were mere country lanes, impassable except for pack-horses. In fact, the packhorse was at this time almost the only means of transportation, and of course this was insufficient to meet the needs of a rapidly growing commerce. But luckily at this time a duke and a mechanic, the Duke of Bridgewater and James Brindley, conceived the idea of making a canal from the duke's collieries at Worsley to the neighbouring town of Manchester. This, the Bridgewater Canal, was completed in 1761 and was followed by a series of other waterways throughout the country, a great number being built in 1775 and the following years. The rivers of England had always been used, far more than is commonly supposed, for commercial purposes; but of course in many of them the difficulties of navigation were very great. The making of canals now afforded a series of water-highways, perfectly navigable and far more convenient in many ways. Thus we see that not only were the means of production increased, but also the means of the distribution of the products of industry. |