ABSTRACT
The Industrial Revolution set off a dynamic self-propelling process, although it has not been homogeneous in terms of intensity, rapidity and geographical area. Technological and scientific progress produced innovations applied to the production process, triggering complex mechanisms of adaptation and response to new problems with attempts to improve, accelerate and organise industrial production. This chapter presents and some factual prompts. It examines the comparative context in order to explain the dynamics of the economic scenario irreversibly transformed by British industrialization. The regions most ready to implement mechanization and industrial development were in north-western Eu-rope; from the English Channel coasts, industrialization spread to northern France, Belgium, the Rhineland, Alsace and the Protestant cantons of Switzerland; further eastwards and Lombardy to the south. One estimate for the same period is that the credit provided by the universal banks constituted half of the total net investments in German industry.
