Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Industrial Peace, Vol. 5
The story of the growth of notions is the history of invention - a force which stands between the diminishing fertility of land and the demands of a people increasing in number and in variety and complexity of wants. Since the day of the master craftsman and the "open field" cultivation of the land, the evolution of industry - or the growth of invention and organisation - has proceeded at an ever-accelerating speed. In the era between the Napoleonic and Franco-Prussian wars it is roughly true to say that Britain was the sole great exporting country of manufactures in the world. The inventions of the latter quarter of the 18th century which paved the way to the Industrial Revolution" of the early 19th century, Watt's steam engine, Roebuck's iron-smelting and Coil's puddling and rolling processes, the spinning and weaving invent ions of Hargreaves, Crompton, Arkwright, Cartwright, and others, followed one another in rapid succession, and, coupled with the immense transport facilities brought about by the const nut ion of Brindley's canals, enabled England to build up vast trade connections before the rest of Europe had awakened to a realisation of the advantages of power over hand-driven machinery. By 1820 modern industry and the life of the great city was an integral part of our national life, whereas in France in that year it is recorded that there were just sixty-five steam-driven engines at work. Such progress as we then made was rightly termed "industrial revolution." At a single bound we left our rivals in trade and industry hopelessly out-distanced, and then, like the hare of AEsop's fable, fell asleep, profoundly convinced that we had nothing to learn or to fear from the slow-going tortoise.
Continuous Evolution of the Mechanism of Foreign Trade.
But the process of evolution has not slackened in its course. The means of rapid communication of the present age make it difficult for any nation to reap material benefit from the monopoly value of its own discoveries.
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