Preceden

British Economy 1783-1850

Iron, Coal and Cotton

Coal output @ 7m tons

1783

Pig Iron Output = 68,000 tons

1788

Pig Iron Output = 250,000 tons

1804

Coal output @ 14m tons

1812

Production of Pig Iron doubled

1815 - 1830

Coal output = 17.4m tons

1820

Cotton industry fully mechanised

1820

Iron output = 450,000 tons

1820

Tonnage of ships in GB = 66.7k

1820

1/5 of imports were cotton

1830 - 1839

30% of workforce in cotton industry

1830 - 1839

70% of exports = textiles

1830 - 1839

Tonnage of ships = 75.5k

1830

Coal output = 49.4m tons

1850

Iron output = 2m tons

1850

Inventions

Threshing Machine creation

1778

By Andrew Meikle

New process for smelting iron

1784

Henry Cort

Power loom creation

1789

by Edward Cartwright

Hundreds of steam engines in use

1800

James Watt

Safety lamp creation

1813

by Sir Humphrey Davey

Cast iron power loom creation

1820 - 1829

by Richard Roberts

Blast air furnace created

1828

by James Beaumont Nielsen

Agriculture

Bad Harvest

1795 - 1796

Bad Harvest

1799 - 1800

1 farmer fed 2.5 people

1800

Compared to 1700, when 1 farmer fed 1.7 people

Many farming bankruptcies

1820 - 1829

Poor rates fell by almost half

1832 - 1846

Freed up more income for the farmers to invest capital

First Enclosure Act

1836

Royal Agricultural Society formed

1842

Second Enclosure Act

1845

Agricultural Drainage Act

1846

Set up loans for farmers to improve drainage, steam drainage could drain 6000 acres with 1 engine

Enclosure Process virtually complete

1850

Railways

Institute of Civil Engineers formed

1818

Stockton-Darlington line opened

1825

Liverpool-Manchester line opened

1830

Huskisson dies at the opening

100 miles of railway existed

1832

R. Stephenson became Chief Engineer of LON-BRM railway

1837

200 railway companies existed

1840

Railway Clearing House created

1842

To distribute revenue across the railway companies

Nearly 2000 miles of railway existed

1843

Railway Act

1844

Gladstone responsible, fare for 3rd class capped at a penny per mile

Gauge Act

1846

All railways had to be 8 inches wide

Over 4000 miles of railway existed

1846

Wars

French Revolutionary War

1789 - 1801

Ended with 1801 Treaty of Amiens

Napoleonic War

1802 - 1815

Ended at Waterloo