ABSTRACT
During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries industrial entrepreneurs in England were struggling for recognition in a relatively hostile environment. The industrialization of England during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries coincided with a rapid increase in population. The rising entrepreneurial class, however, was also confronted with a widespread acceptance of traditional modes of thought among the opinion leaders of London society and of the ruling political groups. And this ideology of traditionalism was more or less incompatible with the ideological legitimation developed by the entrepreneurs and their spokesmen. Most eighteenth-century writers believed that a large population of workers was important for the nation’s wealth, though only if it was properly employed. Industrialization may result from the initiative of many social groups: government officials, dissenting religious groups, aristocratic landowners, craftsmen turned into small entrepreneurs, and many others.
