How the World Changed: Britain, the Low Countries, and the Industrial Revolution—1800 to 1870

A fundamental transformation of work for the average person began in a few countries around 1800. Private firms organized production into factories and hired workers in labor markets; their motivation for profit led to continued innovation, disruption, and technological change. These cycles generated rapid population growth, but with the institutions of private property, labor markets, and firms, population growth was outpaced by technological change for the first time and capitalist societies escaped from the Malthusian trap. Workers moved from agriculture into manufacturing and then services, and there was no going back. Workers in the early industrial period faced long hours and unsafe conditions, leading Marx to theorize that they would eventually revolt, overthrow the exploitative capitalist owners, seize the means of production for themselves and usher in the communist revolution. Capitalist creative destruction combined with Marx’s criticism of working conditions led to unrest and multiple attempted revolts, but no communist revolution succeeded in the nineteenth century. Instead, liberal capitalism was solidified as the dominant economic system as the first adopters of it showcased unprecedented economic and military might.