104 HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF SCIENCE 



result of commercial activities. What the Mediterranean 

 was, in the dissemination of culture during ancient times, 

 the " Seven Seas" became during the transition from the 

 Renaissance to the Modern Period. The Industrial Revolu- 

 tion, which began in England about the middle of the 

 eighteenth century, was a natural sequence to the develop- 

 ment of trade during the period between 1600 and 1750. 

 The modern appreciation of scientific knowledge in relation 

 to practical life was an inevitable product of the Industrial 

 Revolution. 



Thus the relation of commercial intercourse to the ad- 

 vancement of science was at first incidental. Under the 

 liberalizing influence of trade, new ideas were able to take 

 root. The leisure incident to increasing wealth gave op- 

 portunity for intellectual development. Even with the 

 advent of the Factory System, the influence upon scientific 

 progress was still indirect. Only in the nineteenth century 

 did industry grow conscious of its dependence upon scien- 

 tific knowledge and thus become the most effective means of 

 making widely known the facts and methods of science. 



Modern industry arose in England during the latter half 

 of the eighteenth century. The replacement of hand labor 

 by steam and water-power, together with the development 

 of a remarkable series of practical inventions, gave rise to 

 the Factory System and to the industrial expansion of the 

 modern era. It may be observed that these first steps in the 

 direction of scientific industry were taken by men of practical 

 bent, who were, in the main, ignorant of scientific theory. 

 It was found immensely profitable to manufacture for ex- 

 portation, and under this impetus the initial steps of indus- 

 trial development were quickly taken. The medieval dis- 

 like of innovation having been removed, the practical 

 Englishman entered upon his period of industrial supremacy 

 to be checked only toward the close of the nineteenth century 

 by the growth of more scientific methods among his later 

 commercial rivals. 



