"For the first time in history, the living standards of the masses of
ordinary
people have begun to undergo sustained growth ... Nothing remotely like this
economic behavior is mentioned by the classical economists, even as a
theoretical possibility." (2002, p. 9)
In
this paper the core concern is to understand why Industrial Revolution began in
Europe and not in one of the primitive civilizations that is China. The
approach is to understand why Europe is the chosen one for being industrially
developed and technologically innovative and not China. There are adequate
evidences noted in support of the derivations.
Industrial Development began in Britain and soon
spread all over Europe. It was till 18th c. that most of the
European population lived off land as a primitive mode of agricultural
existence. They followed the means of harvests and kinds of seasons that
followed. They were also ruled by smaller political units and social elite
groups. However, in next 150 years, tremendous and unprecedented explosions in
socio-economic life of happened in Europe. This was in terms of initiation of
novel ideas and inventions creating exclusive urbanizations all over Europe and
later the same spread to the US through trade and commerce.
The industrial Revolution started to change the
trends of trade and commerce of the world. The approaches became more global by
the later part of 20th century. There
were many evidences and arguments that support the logical considerations
regarding the development of Industrial Revolution in Europe rather than China.
The foremost matter of concern is the geographical placement of Europe, where
Britain had better climatic advantage than that of China. The reason here is
that Britain has mild weather and there is the trend of constant rainfall. This
condition of moderate weather protected entire Europe from various epidemics
and drought, and most importantly disasters damaging capital. Moreover, Europe
attained favourable agricultural status and also owned fertile soil that
permitted entire Western Europe to have enough land spare for the animals to
graze and later establishment of various industries in accordance to the demands.
This is something that was absent in case of China. According to many
historians, Europe had actually more livestock in comparison to entire Asia,
since medieval period. Animals were used in Europe for food and also for
industrial purposes like those of pulling ploughs or turning millstones and
also in terms of transport. Growth and enough spaces were offered to the
animals due to the availability of land areas for them. Though in China these
practices were prevalent, yet due to excessive population it was hard for the
people of China to offer much space to the animals and thus supports were also
limited.
The expansion and development of Industrial
Revolution in Europe and especially in Britain happened due to the ecological
advantages. The mines of Britain were close in terms of offering proximity
towards all its markets. Though China too had large coal reserves, yet they
were all situated in the Northern part of China. Due to general migration
towards the southern part of China and exclusive re-location of cultural centre
the scope shifted. As these people relocated to get protected from the
invaders; the entire coal industry that initially was blooming turned up as ‘a
backwater’ for the commercial trends and restricted the exploration of new
ideas.
The foremost matter of concern here is that British
approach towards innovation assisted it in opening new doors for modernism. The
political, intellectual and economic conditions of Europe were very favourable
for the spread of Industrial Revolution on a faster pace. The kick start was
still credited to the use of energy in these countries, especially Britain.
Coal attained the dignity of being the black diamond and it supported in
revolutionizing the energy source in Britain for the first time. The basic inspiration
is of course due to the thematic concern of ‘necessity being the mother of
invention’. Coal flourished in the social sphere of Britain in order to support
the increasing population in exchange of reducing timber. As coal appeared
three times more powerful than timber, it got popular on a faster pace. As
Britain discovered big coal mines, nothing was there to stop it from overall
developments. As a result the trade and commerce flourished and made
transportation more efficient and profitable steam engine by James Watt; came
into being in 1712 and revolutionized the industrial growth of Europe as a
whole.
It
is an obvious point that the Chinese count of population outnumbers any other
population count of the world. Whether it is Britain or France, the massive
population of China cannot be compared to these countries with limited
geographic areas and population. The flourish of Industrial Revolution in
Europe was rapid and systematic as the populations of the nations of Europe
were less in numbers and the governments were handling the state with minimal
less complicated front. As against this the Chinese population and the area of
the country is so massive that any determined scientific approach is sure to
face lots of hurdles and contradictions to receive any recognition. In contrast
to the liberty of free flow of ideas in Europe, China as a country was
compelled to undergo severe criticisms and discussions as there were many
people who can contradict novel ideas. As a state of huge population it was also
hard for the country to leave its traditional approaches and embrace something
that is new or experimenting.
Climates of the noted two areas too differed and to
a great extent it supported the development of technology in Britain than in
China. The major climatic problem for Britain was that of flooding, and soon
the same was resolved by steam powered pump. This was an adaptation that turned
up to be the foundation stone for the usability of steam power that was sooner
used in entire industrial sector. China, on the other hand had the problem of
spontaneous combustion that was resolved by adequate ventilation, but the same
never supported for any spark to lead industrial revolution. As a matter of
fact Britain came up with a more innovative idea than China and explored
Industrial Revolution at the first place. The development of this intellectual
trend in Britain and later as noted in Europe as a whole must be
appreciated. Industrial Revolution had
every possible chance of being pirated; means there were chances that the
inventions and discoveries can get copied by some other countries. But under
intellectual dominance, scientists like James Watt patented all possible
inventions and restricted them from being copied. It declared the approach of
copying these formulations, as official crime and is worth shame and
punishment, if necessary. Later people like Newcomen and all the other
inventors were much benefitted by such kinds of similar provisions.
Further, there were the inventions of Theory of
Gravity and physical existence of gas and air by Issac Newton and Robert Boyle,
respectively; that added an extra edge to the developing trend of Industrial
revolution in Europe.
Since
China has huge population there seemed to have abundance of labour. This is the
reason that China actually had lower amount of real wages than as paid in the
countries of Europe and thus restricted the demand for development or
socio-economic growth. Actually the competitiveness was so tough that people
preferred to remain aloof from the rat race and as such the developments were
all offered the back seat. It was during 1960s that 60% of Chinese labors were
employed into agriculture. Te basic concentration of the country was about
feeding its population and so agriculture remained the predominant profession
for Chinese population. during the span of 1960s and further in 1990s there
were striking glimpses of Industrialisation, that is as per the European model,
yet to meet the growth of rapidly increasing population, there was the need for
rapid industrial growth. However, the country could not afford to engage more
than 8% of its population into the industrial domain in 1970s. In the process
the aspects changed and it was by 1990s that labour force for the agricultural
sector fell by 30%, and still continues. Though on a slower pace the whole
population of China started developing in the Industrial sector during the 21st
century, yet attains the Second rank in the world after an amalgamated count of
EU countries, being at the first (Deloitt, 2011). It has been noted that the
development of China in the Industrial sector surpasses the developmental
aspects attained by the US. Moreover, it is also important to note that China
is competing EU as a whole and if we consider its positions as against the
European countries than surely it is in the top.
The
basic difference here is the philosophy that these demographic entities
followed. According to many philosophers and historians, like Max Weber and
David Landes (Landes, 1998), in any such comparative approach it is important
to note the kinds of beliefs and the socio-economic systems followed in
respective demographic regions. If we consider the beliefs and religion of
Europe, we notice the influence of Judaeo-Christianity; scholars like Socrates,
followed by Plato and Aristotle. As against this, Chinese society followed
thinkers and philosophers like Confucius, Han Feizi (for Legalism), Mencius,
Lao Tzu (for Taoism), and above all Buddha (for Buddhism). The core difference
among these populations is that if socio-economic status as considered under
determined belief systems. Europe lays more emphasis on individualism, whereas
Chinese concentrated around people-oriented relationships. However, no matter what, industries attained
revolutionary growth in Europe as against China. The effects were massive and
the developments were tremendous. China never had the systematic developmental
structure. It even lacked scopes and opportunity to develop the formulations of
‘labour saving’ proceedings. It is thus very apt for Christian (2011)[1] as he
notes that it is essence of industrial revolution that created enormous benefit
for the regular lifestyles of people in general. There is a sudden and
tremendous socio-economic development noted in the European countries due to
industrial revolution.
In case of a reference made towards the growth of
population both these demographic areas look alike during the medieval age.
Though China had early marriage rates, many of the women were married prior to
the age of 21 and under Confucianism system were promoted to have large
families, instances of control procedures like infanticide and spacing out
between two births offered China with massive population growth. Chinese in
general started families later and consequently finished earlier than those of
the European counterparts. As for Europe the birth control as adopted by
European countries was that of marriage. As a result China had
‘proto-industrialisation’ swallowing the population scale difference, and thus
equalising itself with Europe. Pomeranz (2000)
discovers that it is the ‘proto-industrialisation’ that actually kept real
wages for the labours at a constant rate during the entire medieval period and
restricted any growth to it. Moreover, according to Perdue (1999) the context
of demographical differences is kind of ‘shortcuts’ to illustrate differences
between the global areas of east and west. According to him, it is also
necessary to note that relative correspondence among these two populations,
their rise and fall without exceeded 5% gap in terms of world population.
Perdue further suggests that in case if scarce population, there is the sole
catalyst noted for innovation and thatis something that clicked in Europe
during the medieval phase and to which China could not cope up with.
Eventually, there is no denial to
the fact that it is the technological advancement that places Europe on an
advanced position than China and modes of industrializations too dependent over
such developments. It is the technological advancement as initiated nd
preferred b the European countries that support Industrial Revolution in terms
of attaining major leap across the socio-economic growth. Europeans actually
made many technological breakthroughs and the same were ignored continuously by
the Chinese population. Europe innovative discoveries like the provision to
capture heat and implementing its effective use makes it set the different
trend in the modern world. It is a matter of interest and keenness that
technology demands on regular pace and European population was capable of the
same and the same lacked in the Chinese population. As a whole due to the total
and absolute difference between cultural, economic, demographic and
geographical structures among Europe and China, the industrial growth too
differed. No contradictory statement can
be noted about the European discovery to capture heat and imply the same
towards the attainment of industrialisation.
Sources
Christian,
David. Maps of Time: An Introduction to
Big History. California: University of California Press: California, 2011,
p. 6
Deloitt
(2011) Where is China's Manufacturing
Industry going? Deloitte China Manufacturing Competitiveness Study 2011.
November 2011. http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-China/Local%20Assets/Documents/Industries/Manufacturing/cn_mfg_2011MFGreport_281211.pdf
[retrieved on 8th May 2013]
Landes,
David S., The Wealth and Poverty of
Nations: Why some are so rich and others are so poor. London 1998
Lucas,
Robert E., Jr. Lectures on Economic
Growth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2002 pp. 109–10.
Perdue,
Peter C., ‘China in the Early Modern
World: Shortcuts, Myths and Realities’ Education About Asia, 4.1 1999
pp.1–15
Pomeranz,
Kenneth, The Great Divergence: Europe,
China and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton, N.J., 2000
[1]
In
the modern era of course the need for cooperation increased, with the start of
the industrial revolution and the rapid increase of collective learning around
the world. The development of
industries, factories and wage earners meant people relied on cooperation and
interconnections more than ever. The industrial revolution and increased
capitalism changed the way people lived. Urbanisation increased as traditional
farming gave way to capitalist farming. People moved to the cities to find work
as wage earners often in factories. Specialised jobs increased and more and
more cooperation was required to live. More cooperation occurred with
governments providing education, health services and law and order. The people
received services for taxes paid. This Cooperation meant people felt a sought
of belonging and nationalism increased. In the modern era people became wage
earners relying more and more on others for food and goods and services. (p.6)
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