... labour. France had a 3-4 times bigger population compared to England where the growth of human population went on quite slow during the early 1700s. In countries where there was a shortage of labour, as in England, the factory owners became desperate to find out new methods to save work and money. In France, production could be improved, without drastic innovations, just by employing more people. Therefore the market for new technologies weren't that big. Furthermore, the industrial revolution got delayed by the years of war in France. The country with the highest potential of beating England was probably China. China had already before England reached a very high level of development, for example, they had spinning wheels with several spindles before James Hargreaves invented the spinning Jenny. But just like France, China had a large population, which exercised a pressure on China's natural resources. Also the population grew more ...

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