Editing Capitalism (section)

=== Industrial Revolution ===
{{Main|Industrial Revolution}}
[[File:Maquina vapor Watt ETSIIM.jpg|thumb|The [[Watt steam engine]], fuelled primarily by [[coal]], propelled the [[Industrial Revolution]] in [[United Kingdom|Britain]].<ref>Watt steam engine image located in the lobby of the Superior Technical School of Industrial Engineers of the [[Technical University of Madrid|UPM]]{{clarify|date=April 2016}} ([[Madrid]]).</ref>]]
In the mid-18th century a group of economic theorists, led by [[David Hume]] (1711–1776)<ref>{{cite book |last=Hume |first=David |author-link=David Hume |title=Political Discourses |url=https://archive.org/details/McGillLibrary-125702-2590 |location=Edinburgh |publisher=A. Kincaid & A. Donaldson |year=1752}}</ref> and [[Adam Smith]] (1723–1790), challenged fundamental mercantilist doctrines—such as the belief that the world's wealth remained constant and that a state could only increase its wealth at the expense of another state.

During the [[Industrial Revolution]], [[industrialists]] replaced merchants as a dominant factor in the capitalist system and effected the decline of the traditional handicraft skills of [[artisan]]s, guilds and [[journeyman|journeymen]]. Industrial capitalism marked the development of the [[factory system]] of manufacturing, characterized by a complex [[division of labor]] between and within work process and the routine of work tasks; and eventually established the domination of the [[Capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)|capitalist mode of production]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burnham |first1=Peter |author1-link=Peter Burnham |year=1996 |chapter=Capitalism |editor1-last=McLean |editor1-first=Iain |editor2-last=McMillan |editor2-first=Alistair |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8JkyAwAAQBAJ |series=Oxford Quick Reference |edition=3 |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |publication-date=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-101827-5 |access-date=14 September 2019 |quote=Industrial capitalism, which Marx dates from the last third of the eighteenth century, finally establishes the domination of the capitalist mode of production. |archive-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727163404/https://books.google.com/books?id=8JkyAwAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}</ref>

Industrial Britain eventually abandoned the [[protectionist]] policy formerly prescribed by mercantilism. In the 19th century, [[Richard Cobden]] (1804–1865) and [[John Bright]] (1811–1889), who based their beliefs on the [[Manchester capitalism|Manchester School]], initiated a movement to lower [[tariffs]].<ref name="laissezf">{{cite web |title=Laissez-faire |url=http://www.bartleby.com/65/la/laissezf.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202050426/http://www.bartleby.com/65/la/laissezf.html |archive-date=2 December 2008}}</ref> In the 1840s Britain adopted a less protectionist policy, with the 1846 repeal of the [[Corn Laws]] and the 1849 repeal of the [[Navigation Acts]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burnham |first1=Peter |author1-link=Peter Burnham |year=1996 |chapter=Capitalism |editor1-last=McLean |editor1-first=Iain |editor2-last=McMillan |editor2-first=Alistair |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8JkyAwAAQBAJ |series=Oxford Quick Reference |edition=3 |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |publication-date=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-101827-5 |access-date=14 September 2019 |quote=For most analysts, mid- to late-nineteenth century Britain is seen as the apotheosis of the laissez-faire phase of capitalism. This phase took off in Britain in the 1840s with the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the Navigation Acts, and the passing of the Banking Act. |archive-date=27 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727163404/https://books.google.com/books?id=8JkyAwAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> Britain reduced tariffs and [[import quota|quotas]], in line with David Ricardo's advocacy of [[free trade]].