Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumCauses and Environmental Preconditions of the Industrial Revolution

Source: Adapted from John Aikin, British physician and writer, *A Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty Miles Round Manchester*, 1795.

"The canal navigations which have been executed in this country within the last thirty years, have contributed wonderfully to the facilitation of commerce. The great advantage of these inland navigations is the facility they afford of conveying heavy and bulky goods—particularly coal, iron-ore, and stone—from the interior parts of the country where they are abundant, to the manufacturing towns and ports where they are consumed or exported. By these means, the price of fuel has been greatly reduced, and new markets have been opened for our domestic manufactures, which were previously restricted by the high cost of land carriage."

Based on the passage, the expansion of the canal system in Great Britain best illustrates which of the following preconditions of the Industrial Revolution?

  1. A
    The creation of a national electrical grid to power automated assembly lines
  2. The development of transportation infrastructure that linked natural resources to urban manufacturing hubsAnswer
  3. C
    The state-directed enforcement of mercantilist regulations to eliminate domestic market competition
  4. D
    The expansion of routes dedicated primarily to the transport of luxury textiles like Chinese silk and porcelain

Answer

The development of transportation infrastructure that linked natural resources to urban manufacturing hubs
The option describing the development of transportation infrastructure that linked natural resources to urban manufacturing hubs is correct because canals were essential for transporting heavy, bulky commodities like coal and iron ore. British geography possessed rich coal and iron deposits, but exploiting them required an efficient, cheap method of transport. The canal network constructed in the late eighteenth century connected these resource-rich inland basins directly to growing manufacturing centers like Manchester, removing transport bottlenecks and lowering fuel costs.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the source text to identify the main subject and its economic function.
The source describes the construction and impact of British canals in the late eighteenth century, highlighting their role in transporting coal, iron ore, and stone to manufacturing towns.
Understanding the context of the source helps isolate the specific technological or geographical advantage being described.
2
Relate the identified function of canals to the historical preconditions of the Industrial Revolution.
Canals solved the logistical challenge of moving heavy raw materials (like coal for steam power and iron for machinery) from inland deposits to industrializing urban centers, reducing the cost of fuel and production.
This links the primary evidence in the text directly to the geographical and environmental causes of industrialization in Great Britain.
3
Evaluate the choices to find the one that matches this infrastructure development while avoiding historical misconceptions.
The correct answer accurately describes the role of canals as transport infrastructure linking resources to cities, while the other options introduce temporal or conceptual errors.
This completes the analysis by confirming the correct historical explanation and ruling out distractors.

Key Concept

Geographic and Infrastructural Preconditions of the Industrial Revolution
Estimated Time:1m 30s
Rate this question

Topics

Causes and Environmental Preconditions of the Industrial Revolution

More questions from this topic