What was crucial to industrialization

First, in order to industrialize, a country does not have to produce the necessary raw materials within its own boundaries because they may be — and in fact have been — imported from abroad.

Second, in order to import raw cotton, a country does not have to rely on its own colonies. Although British companies could have imported raw cotton from the British colony in India, they preferred — like other European companies — raw cotton from the by now independent United States, simply because it was cheaper. Companies anywhere else in the world could have done the same. Only during the American Civil War, when the supply from southern plantations was interrupted, did Britain and the rest of Europe turn to India.

Both iron ore and mineral coal needed to smelt the ore were easily available to European companies, which rendered them independent of overseas supplies. Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, as well as former Austria, had more than enough iron ore and coal to feed the growing number of furnaces, and countries such as Switzerland or Japan had no problems importing the iron and steel they needed.

So again, what we have to ask is why the companies in some countries did exploit their own or imported resources of iron ore and coal and why others did not, and why they did it then and not much sooner. Most of these countries, especially those in Latin America or in West Asia, were no longer or had never been European colonies.

On the other hand, what remains to be explained is why many countries that have had large quantities of mineral oil have not fully industrialized yet, as opposed to those that imported mineral oil because they did not have enough of it themselves.

Thus, summing up what has been said about raw materials so far, it should have become clear that the existence or lack of raw materials can neither explain why some countries industrialized, nor can it explain why the raw materials, which had been there for millions of years, were not used more extensively before the nineteenth century.

If they, as many still argue, had been crucial for industrialization, this process should have started long before the end of the eighteenth century; America was discovered around , and the first colonies were established soon after.

The first explanation for this delay may be found in population numbers. Recent figures compiled and presented by Jon Mathieu show that in , out of an estimated world population of about million people, over 70 per cent lived in Europe and Asia, continents that had traded with each other long before that time.

Trade with the Americas accounted for 18 per cent, 10 for the northern and 8 for the southern continent. This was not only due to population numbers, but also to the much lower purchasing power of native people in America and Africa, with many of them still living as hunters and gatherers and producing hardly any surplus to sell, and others being exploited by relatively small elites both native and foreign.

Besides, before the introduction of railways and steamboats, pre-modern means of transportation drove up the prices for imported goods. Thus, high transportation costs, as well as low purchasing power in these parts of the world, reduced potential overseas markets for industrial goods from Europe to a very small number of people, most of them immigrants from Europe. All of them are in some way related to cities and, therefore, to the hypothesis in the title of this paper.

Successful, widespread industrialization depends on the extent to which the above conditions exist in a given economy. Or, in other words, successful industrialization is not possible without a certain amount of capital, entrepreneurs who invest it in industrial manufacturing, technology to enable industrial production, skilled and less skilled labor to operate the machines, and sufficient transportation systems to make the purchase of raw materials and the sale of manufactured products profitable.

As these conditions are less likely to develop in an agrarian economy, a certain level of urbanization was necessary to obtain them. In general, they produced most of the basic goods they needed to survive by themselves and traded the little surplus they achieved with their neighbors or had to deliver it to a small elite of landlords. In the absence of a large customer base for specialized products, division of labor or specialization made little sense and even fewer profits.

Trade on this small scale required little money; the chances to accumulate capital were scarce. Denser populations in restricted areas raised the number of potential customers and reduced the price of goods as a consequence of lower transportation costs.

Division of labor and specialization began to make sense; markets emerged and grew into cities by attracting more people offering goods and services to each other. Barter proved more and more insufficient; money payments were being introduced instead. The chances for the accumulation of capital rose. In general, we may observe that trade — long-distance trade in particular — offered better chances for accumulating capital than crafts or local trade.

The longer the trade route, the smaller the number of people involved and the larger the potential profit margins. At the same time, long-distance trade required more entrepreneurial spirit, which distinguished long-distance merchants not only from local merchants and craftsmen, but also from landlords. As long as dependent farmers paid their rents in goods or in money, they had little incentive to invest their money in an entrepreneurial way.

Thus, urban merchant capital rather than the capital of rural landlords was invested in economic undertakings. In other words, it was not capital in general that was needed for industrial investment, but commercial capital, the kind that was and still is primarily created in cities. Therefore, it makes sense when Robert Lopez associates the emergence and rapid spreading of cities in medieval Europe, in particular between the eleventh and the fourteenth centuries, with a commercial revolution.

Similar cities with a comparable potential of capital accumulation had emerged long before in ancient times and in several other parts of the world, in particular in the Mediterranean and in parts of Asia. As in Europe before the eighteenth century, these cities met the indispensable preconditions for industrialization, but they lacked the additional circumstances necessary to fuel the existing capital into industrial enterprise.

It is obvious that machine-based manufacturing needed skills that exceeded the technical knowledge of a farmer, who cultivated fields and raised animals in a rather simple way. Instead, modern manufacturing may be regarded as an offspring of traditional crafts, which relied strongly on the technical skills. Such traditional manufacturing developed primarily — though not exclusively — in cities.

Thus, wherever they emerged, cities not only provided merchant capital but also technical skills, long before technology began to be taught in technical schools and universities. When it came to inventing, installing and repairing modern machinery, however, skills and knowledge gathered in metalworking professions proved indispensable. Thus we may find modern textile mills in rural areas, but machine-building enterprises such as locomotive factories were almost exclusively limited to cities.

The relative overpopulation generated by constant population growth provided a surplus of cheap labor, which could be profitably employed in modern factories. As long as low population density allowed rural people to live relatively well on agriculture alone, they had no reason to turn to the much harder and sometimes almost inhumane work in the early factories.

In this period, the organization of cotton production shifted from a small-scale cottage industry, in which rural families performed spinning and weaving tasks in their homes, to a large, mechanized, factory-based industry. The boom in productivity began with a few technical devices, including the spinning jenny, spinning mule, and power loom. First human, then water, and finally steam power were applied to operate power looms, carding machines, and other specialized equipment.

Another well-known innovation was the cotton gin, invented in the United States in This device spurred an increase in cotton cultivation and export from U. Chemicals This industry arose partly in response to the demand for improved bleaching solutions for cotton and other manufactured textiles. Other chemical research was motivated by the quest for artificial dyes, explosives, solvents, fertilizers, and medicines, including pharmaceuticals. Transportation Concurrent with the increased output of agricultural produce and manufactured goods arose the need for more efficient means of delivering these products to market.

The first efforts toward this end in Europe involved constructing improved overland roads. Canals were dug in both Europe and North America to create maritime corridors between existing waterways. Steam engines were recognized as useful in locomotion, resulting in the emergence of the steamboat in the early 19 th century.

High-pressure steam engines also powered railroad locomotives, which operated in Britain after Railways spread rapidly across Europe and North America, extending to Asia in the latter half of the 19 th century. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

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The Industrial Revolution was a global phenomenon marked by the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about to The Industrial Revolution began in the United Kingdom, and mechanized textile production spread from Great Britain to continental Europe and the United States in the early nineteenth century.

During this Revolution, changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology profoundly affected social and economic conditions in the United States. In the s, Oliver Evans invented an automated flour mill that eventually displaced traditional gristmills.

By the turn of the century, Evans also had developed one of the first high-pressure steam engines and began establishing a network of machine workshops to manufacture and repair these popular inventions. In , Eli Whitney developed a machine to separate the seeds of short-fibered cotton from the fibers.

The resulting cotton gin generated huge profits for slave-holding cotton planters in the South. Reliance on horse power for machinery in the United States soon gave way to water power; this resulted in a concentration of industrialization developing in New England and the rest of the northeastern United States, where fast-moving rivers were located.

The great number of rivers and streams along the Atlantic seaboard provided optimal sites for mills and the infrastructure required for early industrialization. Between and , additional industrial tools emerged that rapidly increased the quality and efficiency of manufacturing. In the first two decades of the s, the development of all-metal machine tools and interchangeable parts facilitated the manufacture of new production machines for many industries.

Steam power fueled by coal, wide utilization of water wheels, and powered machinery became common features of the manufacturing industry. During this period, domestic trade also expanded with the introduction of canals, improved roads, and railways. With the proliferation of new canal routes in the s and s, steamboat technology was crucial to domestic freight shipments in the United States.

Subsistence farming declined, and more consumer goods arrived on the market. The transition away from an agricultural-based economy toward machine-based manufacturing led to a great influx of population from the countryside, causing towns and cities to swell in population. The communications revolution that began in this period served to connect communities and transform business. In , Samuel F. In addition, public investment would be necessary for managing the necessary governance infrastructure at a ministerial level.

Thirdly, public-private partnerships could be encouraged to ensure that the requisite technological expertise is in place from the private sector to efficiently deliver technological growth and development.

Cambodia must develop inclusive and enhancing technologies to support its transition towards Industry 4. As Mr. There are several means of encouraging rapid adoption of technologies in the current Cambodian economy, both at personal and industry level, with a view to promoting national growth and development. Three features of the economy provide illustrations as to how this initial phasing can work in practice.

These are the garment sector, agricultural practice, and migration. All three are expected to undergo major transition as Cambodia meets middle-income status, however, the role of technology is to ensure the most effective utilization of available resources at a moment in time.

As we cannot be certain as to the precise nature of future technologies it is a valuable exercise to consider the immediate opportunities presented for economic prosperity under the adoption of more advanced technological practices.

Connecting Garment Workers. Everyone at the garment factory floor is connected through an app to provide reports on his or her activities. When a problem occurs for one employee and negatively affect costs and productivities, a flag is set and alert everyone on the factory floor. When an effective solution is found for a problem, it is highlighted and report to everyone in the factory floor.

Everyone on the factory floor is encouraged to actively participate in the cost cutting and productivity increases in the production process and that all app built for this process should be democratized. Connecting Cambodian Youth. Every youth and every worker abroad are connected through a government-endorsed app with location data embedded.

All workers abroad, with government endorsement, can register with the app about their employment, industry and location to serve as a mentor. Any young person with proper government identification ID can register with this app to receive mentoring services.

Mentors can provide information about their employment, industry, location and availability of the job to their mentees. Outsiders without government endorsement, or potential traffickers cannot access this app. Connecting Agricultural Workers. A special sensor, installed in the farm, can be made to detect the soil chemistry and soil moisture and transmit that information to the receiver; which then transmit to the farmer's mobile phone and upload to the central server for analysis. Based on the information sent from the mobile device, with location data, the central server can analyze the received information, match with the central soil content database, pinpoint the location of the farm and make recommendations accordingly.

The same sensor can be made to transmit the soil moisture content, query the Water Resource and Meteorology server, and intelligently recommend as to when the farmer should add water or should just wait for the rain.

These processes can be automated and spare the farmer from the guessing works as to what fertilizers to use and when to add water to the farm. Cambodia could choose not to do anything with Industry 4. This reduction in comparative productivity will see investment flow away from the kingdom and towards more tech-ready destinations such as Nigeria. From a labor force perspective, the lack of 4. First, for those who wish to excel in industry, foreign employment destinations will be sought after, causing a brain drain within the kingdom.

Second, wages could remain suppressed as the workforce is deemed unproductive. It is unlikely, in the face of being ill prepared for industry 4.

Agriculture will continue to underpin the economy, while garment manufacturing will migrate elsewhere as firms see Cambodia as a sub-optimal market. From a tourism perspective, if Cambodia is unable to provide a suitable level of technology infrastructure for tourists then there will be a concomitant decline in visitors and, accordingly, national revenue.

This is of particular concern when we consider who the tourists of will likely be. By , the Chinese and Indian markets will stand as two of the largest inbound tourism markets as a result of a middle-class explosion. With a great emphasis placed on the technologies that make travel less cumbersome, such as cashless payment and booking platforms, the absence of suitable infrastructure will encourage potential visitors to take their business elsewhere. In the absence of suitable governance structures, investment in new technology will remain ad hoc and minimal.

There will remain some moderate uptake of systems that seek to meet consumer demands such as online banking and movie streaming. Investment in new technology will, in the absence of a limited governance structure, primarily come from the private sector and remain limited.

Perhaps worryingly, should the benefits of industrialization be poorly understood or communicated, Cambodia may find itself retroactively enacting laws and legislation that damage the opportunity for economic growth and development. For example, if a new technology governing the productive processes of garment manufacturing is seen as a threat by workers in that industry, it may be outlawed in the country.

While the short-term outcome would see workers retain their jobs, the long-term reality is that the factories would relocate to a more suitable production base. Single title - Foundation Office Cambodia. Single title. Industrialization H. German Open PDF.