A. The Industrial Revolution, a period spanning roughly from 1760 to 1840, is often simplistically conceived as a time of transformative technological inventions like the steam engine and power loom. While these innovations were undeniably pivotal, to view the era solely through a lens of machinery is to miss its most profound impact: the fundamental and enduring reconfiguration of the world's economic architecture. This period did not merely accelerate production; it catalysed a paradigm shift, dismantling older mercantile systems and forging a new, integrated, yet deeply asymmetrical global economy whose basic structures persist to this day. B. Prior to the mid-18th century, the global economic landscape was vastly different. Most societies were agrarian, with wealth and production tied intimately to the land. Manufacturing was largely the domain of artisans, who produced goods on a small scale in workshops or their own homes. International trade, though existent and growing under mercantilist policies, was geographically constrained and largely focused on luxury items such as spices, silk, and precious metals. The economic relationship between regions was less one of systemic d…
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