Pre-industrial Britain was a period of gradual change in the way people lived and worked as well as a time when continuity of traditional values and beliefs persisted. Many new technologies were been developed and put into practice due to new demands. This began to revolutionise traditional forms of industry, transport and government. Different classes in society were given a fresh incentive to find new ways of practice which resulted in the birth of capitalism demanding innovation. However much of this change was simply an unconstrained continuance much like a chain reaction, one thing leading to another, therefore not completely replacing established society. The reorganisation of pre-industrial Britain was brought about by the combination of many different social, economical, climatic and technological facets. Amidst these were the fast evolution of industry and machinery, the advancement of transport, population growth, British colonisation and also importantly the fortunes of agriculture, which in essence acted as a catalyst to the changes.

The good fortunes of climatic systems, new machinery and the concept of capi

The change to industry was also a slow and gradual transformation. At the start of the eighteenth century industry was mainly domestic. The workers would labour within the confines of their cottages. In the making of some textiles, the whole family would take part. However change did come but there was no revolution as such, the old ways were simply being put into practice with gradual alterations. This meant that the transition from cottage to factory industry was very slow and almost not visible. In 1709 a method for smelting iron with coal or lime stone was discovered. This iron was fundamental in the making of machinery, therefore perhaps puts it at the heart of the evolution of factory industry. Later Darby smelted iron with a substance called coke thus producing a strong metal that could be used in construction. The textile industry also began to pick up pace. In 1718 a large silk factory equipped with water-powered machinery opened in Derby. The factory employed over three hundred people and was such a huge success that a second was opened in Sheffield. These silk mills served as examples for cotton factories and some were even later switched over. The manufacturing of cotton had its first advancements in 1733, when Kay patented a flying shuttle. The flying shuttle was simply fitted to old machinery and could double a worker's output. The overseas colonisation by England strengthened the textile industry, which meant raw products could be imported to British factories at low costs. Then the finished textile could be exported back to a colony and sold at a profit due to free trade. Many merchants became rich entrepreneurs and this could be seen as the birth of capitalism. There had to be willingness to take risk, although it appears that economic growth may have produced entrepreneurs rather than vice versa and there had to be capital to invest. Nonetheless the great improvements that machinery

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