What caused the Industrial Revolution?

[Hashiri7]

Although there are many factors at play in causing the Industrial Revolution, the economic answer to this question has yet to be sussed out. However, no event has a single cause — the Civil War was not wholly caused by slavery and World War I was not wholly caused by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.

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[Andre_Goldman]

My opinion is biased from STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) point of view ..

Revolutions and disruptions in general are made of many factors. It is hard to pin point a single one... but sometimes it can be related to inventions and new paradigms ... I would say that the invention of the "steam engine" was very important to "industrial revolution" ...  

[Hydrogen]

Today DIY (Do It Yourself) is a big business. In the age of the Industrial Revolution, I think DIY wasn't a gimmick it was moreso a way of life. If people wanted something they had to build it themselves, there was no amazon back then.

Due to the DIY nature of the era, many were homebrew engineers, architects and builders with more specialized skillsets than today's work force. There weren't as many distractions as there is today with video games, movies, tv, professional sports.

People were probably bored, didn't have much to do and so they were inventors who built things like steam engines, trains, railways and whatever else. I would guess that was one of the main driving forces behind the Industrial Revolution where some of the greatest inventors were people like the Wright Brothers who made bicycles for a living.

[Mometaskers]

It was a combination of factors coming together at the right time it seems. For example, they already have secure property rights and as I've seen in a show, the birth rate was actually going down at that time, meaning accumulation of wealth is more easily possible, egging people to work even harder for their offspring.

It also helped that they were basically sitting on coal. They started using coal-powered steam engine to pump water out of coal mines so it was not a long stretch for them to think of using engines to power other stuff like looms and trains.

[Btcjunpitz18]

There are so many factors caused by industrial revolution  and one of this is the increase in population so large number of people available to work in industry which more than doubled during the period due to increased food production, advances in medicine, better sanitation and an increased birthrate.

[ginika]

factors causing industrial revolution are:
1. political factors
2. socio-economic factors
3. cultural factors

[Deeyoh]

Give the book "5000 Year leap" a read and form your own conclusions.  May not agree with everything but it's nice to have all points of view.   

One principle I totally agree with is:
"The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free market economy and minimum of government regulations."

Regulations just strangle everything they touch and I have no idea why anyone would think more regulations is good for Crypto currency
 economy.

[AlistairJ]

It is unclear how this is related to the topic of crypto-currency.
My opinion is the person's ability to use energy sources with high EROI (energy returned on energy invested).

[poptok1]

Necessity is the mother of invention.
I would look for this mysterious factor in places less obvious than society or economics of  XVIII century.
My main suspect would be quite significant yet often overlooked LIA (little ice age).
After relatively warm period of medieval, climate started to change drastically, reaching its coldness peak exactly around year 1750.
Causes are not hundred percent known but several have been proposed: low solar radiation, bigger volcanic activity, ocean circulation, variations in Earth's orbit and decreases in the human population.
Whatever the causes, effects unravelled quickly, causing shortages; on wood, warmer clothes, coal and obviously food.
New technical methods where needed to be discovered in order to ensure society's survival as a whole.
Simple answer: IT WAS THE WEATHER  

[matuson]

Although there are many factors at play in causing the Industrial Revolution, the economic answer to this question has yet to be sussed out. However, no event has a single cause — the Civil War was not wholly caused by slavery and World War I was not wholly caused by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.

This is a very primitive idea. Prerequisites for war were and they are not connected in any way with slavery. With the help of war, States destroy their competitors who are developing rapidly and can push them from Olympus. Killing the Duke is only a formal reason. If it wasn't for this murder, it would be different. The reason is the economy.

[alyssa85]

Although there are many factors at play in causing the Industrial Revolution, the economic answer to this question has yet to be sussed out. However, no event has a single cause — the Civil War was not wholly caused by slavery and World War I was not wholly caused by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.

The Industrial Revolution first happened in Britain - and I'd say the Napoleonic Wars played a big part.

Napoleon seized ports in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain, in an attempt to blockade Britain into submission. At first inflation soared in the UK - and out of necessity Britain began to innovate. The whole war effort required a lot of steel, which was normally made by combining charcoal with iron to strengthen it. Abraham Darby discovered that using coke (from coal) made better quality steel.

Then there was the cloth industry - Britain couldn't import fine cloth from France anymore - so switched to cotton cloth (importing raw cotton from the Americas). To make the cotton cloth cheaper, they invented mechanical looms that produced cloth much faster than hand looms.

Because trade with continental Europe was blocked, trade with the Americans increased.

And so on and so forth. By the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, the industrial revolution was in full swing. Britain's trade with the rest of the world continued to expand and trade with the continent continued to shrink, which meant that the long term result was that the Napoleonic wars hurt France more than Britain.

[playful69]

if wages are high and energy costs low, it make sense to mechanized a task. this removes a prohibitively high labour costs and exploits a cheap and abundant energy supply. if an invention was to recoup its productions costs it must be capable of producing lots of 'product'. so scale become an important issue and the next development, the rise of the factory based system of production becomes the inevitable next step.

[atjiat]

if wages are high and energy costs low, it make sense to mechanized a task. this removes a prohibitively high labour costs and exploits a cheap and abundant energy supply. if an invention was to recoup its productions costs it must be capable of producing lots of 'product'. so scale become an important issue and the next development, the rise of the factory based system of production becomes the inevitable next step.

to date, high-tech progress will greatly enhance the productivity of the industrial market. But at least I do not know How this could affect the prospects for crypto currency in the future.

[esa2782]

Efficiency is alaways become a main factor for any changing in society, because we just want some "utopis" idea that everything are being taken care of without doing norhing, industrial as a way of mass producing is basically to fullfill our needs, so of course we will always try to find a better way to produce, from manual labor to mechanical and to "robotic" and AI, so the main caused of any changing or revolution oa because we want everything to be auto pilot (convenience)

[Janodevera]

As well as the debate over preconditions, there has been a closely related discussion over the causes of the revolution. A wide range of factors is generally considered to have worked together, including. The end of medieval structures changed economic relationships and allowed for change, a higher population because of less disease and lower infant mortality allows for a larger industrial workforce ,the Agricultural Revolution frees people from the soil, allowing  or driving  them into cities and manufacturing, proportionally large amounts of spare capital were available for investment, inventions and the scientific revolution allowed for new technology to increase and cheapen production, colonial trade networks allowed the import of materials and the export of manufactured goods, The presence of all the required resources close together, such as coal near iron, culture of hard work, risk-taking and the development of ideas, demand for goods.

[Notcalculator]

The capitalist mindset drove them to new inventions that enabled them to mass produce their products. After all necessity is the mother of all invention. Capitalism placed a certain pressure to mass produce and get ahead of the completion. I guess when we want economic growth we do something about it.