The Industrial Revolution in London
by Great Britain was the first country to experience the industrial revolution, and the city of London affected and was in turn affected by that process.
There were various reasons why the industrial revolution in London happened. Not everybody in modern times realises how important London was as an industrial centre in its own right. When people think of the industrial revolution they generally assume that it was based in industrial towns or cities such as Birmingham, Bradford, Glasgow, Manchester, and Newcastle.
The industrial revolution in London was as important as anywhere else in Great Britain was. Indeed London was important for the raising of investment capital for industries across the whole of Great Britain. London’s importance for the spreading of capital was due to its then position of being the centre of the most important banking sector in the world.
The industrial revolution in London was important due to London’s position as one of the busiest ports in the world. As such London received a high percentage of the raw materials imported into Great Britain, as well as being the port in which exports were sent to the rest of the world.
The industrial revolution in London was also important due to the attractiveness of the city as a place to open factories and businesses. London was a good place for factories and businesses to establish themselves because many of the people that left the countryside went to London to find gainful employment. Besides British migrants from rural districts London also attracted immigrants from abroad. There were two main reasons why industrialists liked migrant workers, employers could pay them less, and sometimes they were highly skilled.
London was also the place to go to for industrialists to sell their finished products, and due to the construction of the canal network and the later development of the railway network meant that the industrial heart lands of Great Britain were well connected to the capital city. Arguably the construction of the canal and the railway networks provided further impetus for the industrial revolution in Great Britain taken as a whole.
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