ABSTRACT
The Industrial Revolution, which began in England, marked a dramatic change in the economic history of the world. Traditionally it has been thought that sometime during the late eighteenth century structural economic changes began to occur in England. These changes involved the development of new technologies that were in turn applied to practical pursuits, namely economic and business activities. The result was thought to have been a dramatic increase in the overall rate of economic growth. Modern factories arose, involving large-scale production that required great supplies of relatively unskilled labor. Labor congregated in urban areas, with employment in the agricultural sector dramatically shrinking in size. Thus, growth seemed to be combined with dramatic structural change.
