[Guide to the Market Economy] Why Did the Industrial Revolution Begin in Britain?

France developed the loom before Britain did, but France banned its use…in Britain it was freely commercialized

In 1739, an interesting demonstration was held at the court of Louis XV of France. The star of the show was a mechanical duck created by a young engineer named Jacques de Vaucanson. When the duck was wound up and set afloat on water, it swam, quacked, and flapped its wings. What was more, like a real duck, it could drink water, digest food, and even defecate. Of course, the digestion process was a trick, and the “droppings” were nothing more than bread crumbs dyed blue. Even so, the mechanical duck demonstration became the talk of all Paris at the time.

Machines made by Vaucanson

Before unveiling the mechanical duck, Vaucanson had already invented life-sized mechanical figures that played the drum and flute. Like the duck, these automata operated by winding a spring, and were said to perform 12 pieces using mechanically moving fingers and the inhaling and exhaling motion of the lips. It is said that he made a fortune by creating popular puppet shows with these figures, which suggests that his business sense was nearly as impressive as his skill as an inventor.

Recognized by the king for his talents, Vaucanson rose rapidly and, at the age of 32, became the manager of the royal silk mill. The task given to him was to apply his skill in automating figures to the development of a weaving machine. The loom he invented at that time came as much as 24 years before the British loom that later helped drive the Industrial Revolution. But that was where his golden age came to an end.

The tragedy that befell Vaucanson was brought on by artisans who feared losing their jobs because of his loom. France’s silk guild burned his weaving machine and threatened to kill him if he continued inventing machines. It was a kind of French version of the Luddite movement, and from that point on, this genius ahead of his time could do nothing more. It is said that all of Vaucanson’s inventions, whether his loom or his mechanical duck, were destroyed during the French Revolution, and that not even their blueprints can be found today.

Britain freely did business

Based on Vaucanson’s loom, France claims that it, not Britain, was the true originator of the Industrial Revolution. One can understand the French reluctance to concede anything to Britain, but while France may have been the first to develop the automatic loom, it is a stretch to call it the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the late 18th century. Some people look to science and technology for the reason. They point to Britain’s level of scientific and technological development, which produced James Watt’s steam engine and Stephenson’s steam locomotive. But James Watt was someone who had never received a proper scientific education. Stephenson was in an even worse position, reportedly being nearly illiterate. Isaac Newton, the British physicist, was indeed English in the early 18th century, but his classical physics had little to do with the Industrial Revolution.

As Napoleon, a contemporary figure, once dismissively remarked, Britain at the time was a nation of shopkeepers. The laissez-faire atmosphere of British society made its people free, and as a result Britons were able to become traders and entrepreneurs. And it was precisely because Britain was a nation of shopkeepers that it was able to achieve the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution is essentially a phenomenon that occurs when a modest degree of technology combines with a vigorous desire to make money. To make money, one must offer goods that consumers will buy. In trying to sell, producers naturally put out goods that are cheap and of good quality, and industrialization follows as a matter of course.

We, too, first created metal movable type, but…

It is said that while Europe was going through the Industrial Revolution, the Chinese imperial court was also filled with all kinds of the latest machines and goods brought in from the West—for example, elaborate clocks and mechanical toys like those of Vaucanson. The quality of the collection surpassed that of the laboratories of many first-rate Western universities. But these modern products remained little more than curiosities for the imperial court and never spread beyond the high walls of the Forbidden City into the outside world.

We have a similar story as well. We were the first in the world to possess metal movable type technology, but that technology never became connected to the publishing business. More recently, the world’s first MP3 player was developed by our own hands, yet we had no choice but to watch as Apple’s iPod became a global hit. Technology matters, but it is always the merchants who build civilization and bring revolutions to fruition.

■ Something to think about

France’s Vaucanson created a loom 24 years earlier than Britain, but it never came to fruition because of opposition from traditional artisans. Those artisans burned the loom and threatened to kill Vaucanson if he invented machines.

Sung-no Choi, President of the Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: [시장경제 길라잡이] 산업혁명은 왜 영국에서 시작됐나?

Author: Sung-no Choi

Date: 2018-11-26

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=column&pn=15&idx=11328