FinleyJennings' Industrialisation Blog

The Cotton Industry Traditionally the cotton industry was primarily carried out in small workshops and at homes. This meant that production was slow, lacked quality control and provided little room for expansion. As the population grew the demand for clothes and textiles. Cotton was the easiest material to manufacture as it was cheaper, more comfortable and easier to wash. Cotton manufacturing was set up in lanarkshire and Lancashire as the rivers there were used to power the new machines that had been made such as the spinning jenny and the Arkwright water frame. Canal systems were used to connect the factories to the main seaports. The boom of the cotton industry had a ripple affect on other industries. The increase in factories meant that the demand for coal and iron increased drastically. In 1781 James Watt invented the rotary steam engine, which made the production of these resources quicker and more efficient but only a third of these were being used in the cotton industry...

The Government system relies on representatives being voted into parliament by their local borough. However this system has a lot of issues. The number of representatives in each borough wasn't updated as industrialisation. Therefore declining market towns would still have two representatives while booming industrial towns would still have no representation. Every borough had different rules which qualified you to vote. However there were two common terms used for describing a borough. 'Pocket boroughs' were boroughs that were controlled completely by the land owners. 'Rotten boroughs' were boroughs that had very few franchised voters, meaning the vote could be easily rigged, but still had two representatives.

By 1783, Britain's government was based upon a Constitutional Monarchy. The Monarch (King George III at the time) was bound by an oath that restricted their power. The oath transferred the responsibility of law making, taxation, spending and external affairs to the government. The Monarchs income was also dependent on the government. The Monarch still had power, however. He could influence general policy and could choose his ministers, this encouraged mp's to agree with the King to get appointed. He could also dissolve parliament but a general election had to be called as they could not rule without a parliament. They could Veto decisions but this could risk their income if his decision wasn't popular. The house of lords was made up of the wealthiest elite. They had lots of  influence  and could block propositions made by the house of commons. The members of the commons were voted in by the small number of legible voters. They represented the interests of the local peop...