A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

748 Ch. 19 • Rapid Industrialization and Its Challenges

Women working on a sewing machine and sewing by hand.

cartels, protecting them from competition from abroad. Even where there

were no cartels, the concentration of business in larger companies contin­

ued, in part because in industries such as metallurgy and chemicals, expen­

sive machinery made “start-up” costs prohibitive for smaller firms.

Regional Variations

The industrial boom of the Second Industrial Revolution was perhaps

most dramatic in Germany. By 1890, both Germany and the United States

had surged ahead of Britain in metallurgical production. By the turn of the

century, German factories turned out more steel than Britain and France

combined, and Germany's chemical industry was the most modern in the

world. In 1900, Britain produced twice as much sulphuric acid as Ger­

many; in 1913, the proportion had been reversed. Germany’s national

product more than tripled between unification in 1871 and 1914.

Germany enjoyed the advantage of starting to industrialize after its

rivals, thereby being able to employ the most modern equipment in facto­

ries specially built to accommodate technological advances. By contrast,

some British factories, most of which had been built early in the century

(and some even before), seemed to be crumbling.