factories; work grew to be more specialized; new forms
of skill were developed, and some old forms lost. Labour
became more mobile, and higher standards of comfort
were offered to those able and willing to move to centres
of opportunity.

At the same time fresh sources of raw material were
exploited, new markets were opened, and new methods
of trade devised. Capital increased in volume and
fluidity; the currency was set on a gold base; a banking
system came into being. Many old privileges and
monopolies were swept away, and legislative impedi-
ments to enterprise removed. The State came to play
a less active, the individual and the voluntary association
a more active, part in affairs. Ideas of innovation and
progress undermined traditional sanctions: men began
to look forward, rather than backward, and their
thoughts as to the nature and purpose of social life were
transformed.

Whether or not such a series of changes should be
spoken of as 'The Industrial Revolution' might be
debated at length. The changes were not merely 'indus-
trial', but also social and intellectual. The word 'revolu-
tion' implies a suddenness of change that is not, in fact,
characteristic of economic processes. The system of
human relationships that is sometimes called capitalism
had its origins long before 1760, and attained its full
development long after 1830: there is a danger of over-
looking the essential fact of continuity. But the phrase
'Industrial Revolution' has been used by a long line of
historians and has become so firmly embedded in
common speech that it would be pedantic to offer a
substitute.

The outstanding feature of the social history of the

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