ABSTRACT
Industrialization began in England but spread quickly through Europe and to America. The textile industries were at the forefront of the process and the first to establish factory units employing large numbers of people in the same plant. Other industries quickly followed. Metal working, brick making and coal getting were already beginning to expand by the mid-eighteenth century, establishing small factories and workshops which were rapidly to grow in scale following the precedent set in textiles. Industrialization quickly extended beyond the subsistence industries related to food, shelter and clothing.
