<P> Consumers benefited from falling prices for clothing and household articles such as cast iron cooking utensils, and in the following decades, stoves for cooking and space heating . Coffee, tea, sugar, tobacco and chocolate became affordable to many in Europe . Watches and household clocks became popular consumer items . </P> <P> Meeting the demands of the consumer revolution and growth in wealth of the middle classes in Britain, potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood, founder of Wedgwood fine china and porcelain, created goods such as tableware, which was starting to become a common feature on dining tables . </P> <P> The Industrial Revolution was the first period in history during which there was a simultaneous increase in both population and per capita income . </P> <P> According to Robert Hughes in The Fatal Shore, the population of England and Wales, which had remained steady at six million from 1700 to 1740, rose dramatically after 1740 . The population of England had more than doubled from 8.3 million in 1801 to 16.8 million in 1850 and, by 1901, had nearly doubled again to 30.5 million . Improved conditions led to the population of Britain increasing from 10 million to 40 million in the 1800s . Europe's population increased from about 100 million in 1700 to 400 million by 1900 . </P>

Five reasons why the industrial revolution began in great britain