The Industrial Revolution

The rapid pace of technological change is beginning to have a profound effect on the very organization of society. The invention of the steam engine, the use of coke in iron production and new, mechanized manufacturing equipment allow for unprecedented economies of scale, bringing about a massive increase in worker productivity. Further inventions are helping to greatly ease the transportation of large volumes of goods. With global trade as interconnected as never before, factories can both draw on raw materials from and sell the resulting manufactured goods to markets around the world, bringing in unimaginable riches for their owners.\n\nMeanwhile, the field of agriculture, new practices such as crop rotation and the use of enclosures have similarly increased productivity, meaning that fewer workers are needed to work the same area of land, leading many to abandon their homes and settle in the growing industrial cities. A new world is being born, one in which the ambitious and the rich shall dominate society as never before.