\paperw3360 \margr0\margl0\ATXph16380 \plain \fs20 \f1 \fs22 Commerce in early modern Britain centred around London, though the ports of Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow were rapid
ly growing. Business was largely based on slave-trade and colonial products such as sugar, \b \cf4 \ATXht10761000 tea\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , tobacco and cotton. However, it was \b \cf4 \ATXht10771000 cotton\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 that was to have the most far-reach
ing effects on the future shape of Britain's economy and other parts of the world. Every ounce of the raw materials had to be imported from afar, and the \b \cf4 \ATXht10741000 products were largely sold abroad\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 . Moreover, cotton was the
first crop to be industrialized. The new factory systems centred around Manchester, which multiplied tenfold in size between 1760 and 1830. Initially the factories only housed the then-recently improved \b \cf4 \ATXht10781000 spinning wheels\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , which were later driven by steam power. Although a power-loom had also been invented in the 1780s, it was not until the 1820s that mechanisation began to make the manual weavers of the earlier cottage industries redundant. As industrialisation grew i
n other parts of the world, Britain catered to an increasing demand for capital goods such as iron, steel and coal. By the 1840s, wealth had increased beyond all measure, but so had indigence and misery. The following decades saw the enactment of various
\b \cf4 \ATXht10791000 reforms\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 aimed at improving the lot of the poor.\par
