how was the pace of industrialisation during 19th century Europe
Answers
The earlier phase of industrialisation in which large scale production was carried out for international market not at factories but in decentralised units.
(i) Huge demand : The world trade expanded at a very fast rate during the 17th and the 18th centuries. The acquisition of colonies
was also responsible for the increase in demand. The town producers failed to produce the required quantity.
(ii) Powerful town producers :
• The town producers were very powerful,
• The producers could not expand the production a: will. This was because in the towns, urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful. These were associations of producers that trained craftspeople, maintained control over production, regulated competition and prices, and restricted the entry of new people within the trade.
(iii) Monopoly rights : The rulers granted different guilds the monopoly right to produce and trade in specific products It was therefore difficult for new merchants to set up business in towns. So they turned to the countryside.
(iv) New economic situation in the countryside : Open fields were disappearing in the countryside and the commons were being enclosed. Cottagers and poor peasants who were earlier depended on common lands became jobless So when merchants came around and offered advance