ABSTRACT
England became an urbanized country; it became at the same time an industrial one. Though all kinds of towns were growing in the nineteenth century, it was the new factory towns and industrial conurbations, shipbuilding and commercial centres, that led the van. The combination of new machinery and expanding markets enormously swelled employment, though as a partial offset there was of course the displacement of thousands of hands in the old domestic trades. The 'Industrial Revolution, in fact, saw not merely a rise of large-scale industry; in its early stages it also stimulated the expansion of certain of the hand trades. There were many inventions which had a less immediate impact but proved valuable as they were developed for a widening range of applications. Effective preservation of foodstuffs greatly reduced the problems of transporting meat, soups, and eventually a wide range of foods across the oceans, helped in overcoming gluts and shortages, and provided short-cuts for the family cook.
