Before the Industrial Revolution, the vast majority of people grew their own crops and lived on farms. At this time, little machinery was available and people had to do everything and make everything by hand (McCormick paraphrase). Even furniture, clothing, and paper were made skillfully by hand. However, all that changed when machines were invented. Eventually, hand labor became a thing of the past because the invention of machines. Now working in buildings, urban workers operated water-powered, steam-powered, and foot-driven machinery (Licht paraphrase p 33). This type of production system allowed specialization and allowed single item goods to be cheaply manufactured by workers (Licht paraphrase p 33). Furthermore, “the industrial revolution saw sharp reductions in the prices of manufactured goods such as cloth, shoes, hats, stockings, and other clothing” (Allen …show more content…
Before the Industrial Revolution, goods were hauled and transported to their destinations in a very slow manner. However, between the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the mass production of goods brought forth new methods of transportation. During the era of invention, steam-powered trains were developed so they could transport material goods fast and in a timely manner (Hart-Davis paraphrase). Trains were the more efficient mode of transportation because they reduced the cost of transporting goods (up to 50 percent) and they traveled further distances at higher speeds (up to 40 miles per hour) (Hart-Davis paraphrase). This was made possible due to the fact that by the mid-nineteenth century, approximately “2 million tons of iron had been used for railroad tracks and there were 6,214 miles of train tracks around Britain” (Hart-Davis p.