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Several influences came together at the same time to revolutionise Britain's industry: money, labour, a greater demand for goods, new power, and better transport.

By the end of the eighteenth century, some families had made huge private fortunes. Growing merchant banks helped put this money to use.

Increased food production made it possible to feed large populations in the new towns. These populations were made up of the people who had lost their land through enclosures and were looking for work. They now needed to buy things they had never needed before. In the old days people in the villages had grown their own food, made many of their own clothes and generally managed without having to buy very much. As landless workers these people had to buy food, clothing and everything else they needed. This created an opportunity to make and sell more goods than ever before. The same landless people who needed these things also became the workers who made them.

By the early eighteenth century simple machines had already been invented for basic jobs. They could make large quantities of simple goods quickly and cheaply so that "mass production" became possible for the first time. Each machine carried out one simple process, which introduced the idea of "division of labour" among workers. This was to become an important part of the industrial revolution.