Abstract
The Industrial Revolution in England that took place from the second half of the 18th century to the first half of the 19th century was one of the most epoch-making events in the history of mankind. For many countries have, subsequently, experienced it and undergone a very drastic transformation of their own social framework. Until now, much effort has been devoted to the study of what effects the industrial revolution has had on the life of human beings, with the result that one could perceive the changing components of the agricultural revolution, the transport revolution, the srvice revolution et cetera. But there remains a very important area that former scholars have more often than not neglected. That is the market revolution which deals with the change from subsistence farming to the commodity market. Why do I propose such a new technical term of market revolution as a tool for the analysis of history? The teason is that the factory system which came about during the Industrial Revolution brought forth wage laborers and, therefore brought about the complete dissolution of subsistence farming. Wage laborers detached from agriculture had to buy commodities necessary for daily life, and that meant the necessity of a new market system. Terms as retailing revolution, consumer revolution, distribution revolution used by scholars as Peter Mathias, W. Hamish Fraser, Neil Mckendrick and others abound. Notwithstanding this, the reason why I propose the new term of market revolution is that these terms do not concentrate on the dissolution of subsistence farming on a world wide scale which the Industrial Revolution accomplished. It is one of the most important points in the study of the industrial revolution to make scientific research into the history of the separation of the retail and the wholesale markets, and the appearance of the one-stop shopping system et cetera.
