by From Ken Zimmerman In 1771 a former barber and wig maker, Richard Arkwright, opened the world’s first water-powered spinning mill at Cromford in Derbyshire. He employed 600 workers, mainly children, who could do the work of ten times that number of hand spinners. In 1775 a Scottish mathematical instrument maker, James Watt, joined forces with the Birmingham engineer Matthew Boulton to produce steam engines which could turn machinery, haul enormous loads and, eventually, propel ships and land vehicles at speeds previously undreamed of. In 1783–84 Henry Cort devised a superior ‘puddling’ method of smelting iron and a rolling mill for processing it. The way was open, through integrating these inventions and others, to develop a whole new way of producing, based upon steam-powered
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from Ken Zimmerman
In 1771 a former barber and wig maker, Richard Arkwright, opened the world’s first water-powered spinning mill at Cromford in Derbyshire. He employed 600 workers, mainly children, who could do the work of ten times that number of hand spinners. In 1775 a Scottish mathematical instrument maker, James Watt, joined forces with the Birmingham engineer Matthew Boulton to produce steam engines which could turn machinery, haul enormous loads and, eventually, propel ships and land vehicles at speeds previously undreamed of. In 1783–84 Henry Cort devised a superior ‘puddling’ method of smelting iron and a rolling mill for processing it. The way was open, through integrating these inventions and others, to develop a whole new way of producing, based upon steam-powered factories employing hundreds or even thousands of people. By the end of the century there were 50 such factories in the Manchester area alone. It was not long before entrepreneurs elsewhere in Europe and across the Atlantic were trying to imitate the new methods. The world of the urban artisans and the rural putting-out system (piece work with merchant provide materials) was giving birth to the industrial city. Just as these changes were beginning to unfold, a Scots professor set out what he saw as the fundamental principles of the new economic system. Today Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” is usually treated as the bible of conservatism. But when it appeared, it represented a radical challenge to the prevailing order in Europe and to those who still hankered after that order in Britain. That is, Smith invented economic history to support a radical new economic way of life. A way of life organized around new ways of using non-human energy for creating products for sale. Which destroyed the existing societies of Europe and laid waste the lives of thousands of persons in Europe. So much for “conservative” economics and economists.