ABSTRACT
The cause of this change was, of course, the development of manufacturing industry associated with the Industrial Revolution which had begun in the latter part of the preceding century. Its origins were certainly earlier than 1750, and it can be argued that its completion is not yet, but there can be no doubt that the pace of change was very rapid, and very evident, between about 1780 and 1850 when, as a result of the invention of machines for spinning and weaving, and the development of the steam engine, the textile trades were transformed into factory industries centred in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Coal-mining and the iron industry were also growing rapidly in response to the new demands, while improved communications by canals, railways, and steamships were distributing the ever-increasing products of industrialism at home and overseas. Our period fitly ends with the Great Exhibition of 1851, which demonstrated in a spectacular way the industrial predominance of 'the workshop of the world'.
