Why did Britain's industrial revolution begin with cotton?

The industrial revolution, also known as the "industrial revolution", refers to a profound technological revolution and subsequent social and economic changes that took place from the second half of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century, when the great machine industry replaced the workshop and handicraft industry. Britain is the birthplace and center of the industrial revolution.

The industrial revolution began in England in the middle of the 18th century. At that time, the bourgeois revolution in Britain had been completed, which created favorable political conditions for the development of capitalist economy. The enclosure movement and colonial plunder accumulated sufficient capital and labor resources for industrial technology upgrading. In British industry at that time, the cotton textile industry was particularly profitable, and the scale of production was growing rapidly. Handcraft workshops were well developed, and the number of skilled workers was increasing, making it easier to introduce new technologies. From the mid-18th century, the cotton textile industry began to use machines. In 1733, the watchmaker kaye invented the flying shuttle, which initially changed the backward method of manual shuttle weaving, so that the work efficiency was increased twice, and the cotton yarn was in short supply at that time, resulting in "yarn shortage", thus promoting the reform of spinning technology. In 1764, textile worker hargreaves invented the hand-cranked multi-spindle spinning machine (later named Jenny machine after his daughter), which greatly increased labor productivity. To solve the problem of more spinner and less power on the Jenny, the clockmaker aklete invented the water-driven spinning machine in 1769. The yarns spun by Jenny are fine but brittle, while those spun by water-spinning machines are firm but coarse. In 1779, knuder crompton combined the advantages of Jenny and water-spinning machines and invented a new type of spinning machine (" mule machine "). The mule machine could rotate three or four hundred spindles at the same time, promoting the innovation of textile technology. In 1785, after visiting the cotton mill in archulette, the country minister cartwright was inspired by the water-spinning machine and made a water-spinning machine, which increased the efficiency of weaving by about 40 times. The invention completed the linkage of the spinning machine and the loom, thus achieving a historic breakthrough in workmachine-related technologies and promoting technological changes in other manufacturing industries.

The continuous advancement of textile industry was once restricted by insufficient power. In 1782, watt produced a steam engine that could push pistons from both sides. This epoch-making technical innovation makes the steam engine become a powerful and convenient power engine, and solves the power problem in industrial development. Steam engine gradually applied in chemical industry, metallurgy, mining, transportation, transportation and other departments, to the national economy and social life has brought great changes, at the same time promote the invention and creation of the industry, such as the 1807 americans darfur, invented the steam engine, ship developed in 1814, the British Stephenson steam locomotives, and planer, turning lathe, steam hammer, boring machine, etc. The invention and application of machine tools. By the middle of the 19th century, the British machine industry basically replaced the cottage industry and workshop industry based on manual technology, and the industrial revolution was basically completed. Subsequently, many countries in Europe and America also embarked on the road of industrial revolution.