INDUSTRIALISM. – It can be defined as the aggregate of phenomena that characterize the formation of modern large-scale industry. Industrialism is therefore a complex phenomenon in the sense that, just as it originates from a series of facts and circumstances, so too it in turn determines a series of phenomena, all of which are of considerable importance in the formation of the world’s socio-economic structure from the second half of the 18th century onward.
The principal phenomena in which industrialism is summarized are the following:
I. DEVELOPMENT IN PRODUCTION TECHNIQUE
Such as had never been seen in earlier epochs. This is in fact one of the elements in which the famous “Industrial Revolution” can be identified. It took place in England between 1780 and 1830, some half-century ahead of all the countries of continental Europe. The development in production technique is manifested in two ways: a) through the discovery of new machines (e.g., the flying shuttle, the spinning jenny, the water-powered loom and later the steam-powered loom, etc.), as well as the establishment of new manufacturing processes (e.g., the introduction of coke for the smelting of iron ore); b) through the new proportion in which the use of machinery (whose appearance and first practical applications had occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries) takes place: a proportion far greater than that which characterized earlier epochs. It is especially the content of point b) that provides ample justification for another phenomenon in which industrialism is characterized, namely the following.II. INCREASE IN THE SIZE OF BUSINESS ENTERPRISES
Indeed, only an enterprise equipped with substantial capital and oriented toward mass production rather than quality could be capable of employing machinery whose cost at that time was extraordinarily high. In turn, the greater scale of the enterprise—often achieved through the concentration of various firms into a single business and increasingly embodied in the characteristic form of the joint-stock company—brings about, through the ability to purchase raw and auxiliary materials on a large scale, the replacement of part of the labor force by machinery, the development of an increasingly sophisticated sales organization, and above all the reduction of overhead costs, a decrease in production costs and thus ever-greater sales, and ultimately the realization of substantial profits.III. POPULATION GROWTH AND DEMOGRAPHIC MOVEMENT
Population growth is a phenomenon that, though already underway in the centuries preceding the 18th, had been less evident due to negative factors such as plagues and wars that at intervals nullified the gains from natural increase. Toward the end of that century, however, it took on a very decisive trend. It is estimated, in fact, that from the late 1700s to the mid-1800s, the European population increased from 185 to 500 million. This growth is largely due to improvements in the hygienic and social conditions of the population, which led to an ever-greater gap between birth and death rates. The increase in population spurred consumption, thereby constituting one of the main justifications for the rise in production and, consequently, for the establishment of large-scale industry. On the other hand, population growth led to a greater supply of labor, the effects of which—through a reduction in the cost of labor—were felt within the new industrial organization. The movement of the population essentially consists of the shift from rural areas to cities, where the prospect of better-paid work attracted large numbers. Although this phenomenon was not entirely new, as it accompanies every period of economic progress, in the 18th century, and even more so in the following ones, it assumed particular scope, leading to a marked increase in the population of major cities and the emergence of new urban centers, particularly those where the largest industrial complexes took hold.IV. IMPROVEMENT OF ROADS AND MEANS OF COMMUNICATION AND TRANSPORT, AND THE RESULTING INCREASE IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE
This too is an important factor in the development of large-scale industry, which in turn is facilitated by II. Even though the situation of the 19th and especially the 20th centuries had not yet been reached, the road network, already in the second half of the 18th century, expanded and improved everywhere. A veritable novelty, however, was the network of navigable canals that spread across Europe, while maritime navigation saw a notable increase in the number of ships and their tonnage. Finally, the application of steam power to both land (railways) and sea transport gave decisive impetus to the growth of trade from both a quantitative and qualitative standpoint, in the sense that, unlike in previous eras, mass trade also developed for low-value and bulky goods.V. DEVELOPMENT OF CREDIT
The rise of numerous and powerful banking organizations enabled the pooling of substantial capital, especially from small savers, and its distribution to new industrial enterprises, whose financial needs—insufficiently met by the capital provided by their founders—were constantly increasing.VI. THE EMERGENCE OF PHYSIOCRATIC AND, LATER, LIBERALIST CONCEPTIONS
These are based on the belief in the existence of laws operating through human beings, driven by their self-interest to maximize pleasure and minimize suffering. The prevalence, even in the scientific and economic policy spheres, of the principle of personal gain as the best means to achieve economic optimum for both the individual and society constitutes a strong endorsement for the emergence of most of the phenomena that characterize industrialism, particularly the development of production techniques, the growth in the size of enterprises, and the expansion of credit.The consequences of the emergence of industrialism are considerable. It can indeed be said that no sector of social life