During a time when the road infrastructure was completely underdeveloped in all countries, the fact that so many river could be interconnected greatly increased communication between the various parts of Britain. Additionally, Britain also saw the development of some of the most important technology during this period of time, which facilitated the industrial revolution. Technological instruments such as Watt's steam engine allowed an immediate increase in productivity and efficiency.

There are certainly several political and military reasons that are worth enumerating. At the historical moment we could estimate the beginning of the modern economy in Britain, somewhere in the 18th century, the other main economic powers that would dominate the continent in the 20th century were either defeated or too weak to contest Britain's economic supremacy. France had been defeated in the Seven Years wear and had lost most of its colonies in North America and India, making it a lesser player in the commercial global disputes. Germany and Italy were not yet united, while Russia was still economically a backward country. For Britain, the absence of a true competitor on the global market facilitated its concentration on the development of a proper, modern economic system.

Politically and militarily, Britain was also an area that had been relatively safe from conflict throughout its history. Other that some internal conflicts, such as the War of the Two Roses or the Civil War, there had been no true war on its soil. All of the other European countries had, at some point or other, been devastated by such large-scale conflicts, usually involving more than one enemies. The Hundred Years War had been fought, throughout the 14th and 15th century entirely on French soil. The Thirty Years War had devastated German territory in the 17th century. All the wars of the 18th century had been fought throughout Germany, France or Italy, but they had all spared Britain. Again, this type of argument comes to show that...

The British population began to gradually rise as it had managed to overcome the problems of the 14th and 15th century, namely the Black Death and the War of the Roses. As mentioned, the country was not affected by any of the European wars that were being fought during this period and its own contribution in terms of human power to the European wars was still significantly small. As a direct consequence, most of the increase in population was simply used for economic development.
The growth of the population brought not only an increase in the volume of labor, but also the increase in demand for goods produced. As in any case of a population growth, the need for agricultural and industrial products grows and this was the case for Britain. The economy needed to adapt to this demographic growth and, as such, it needed to adopt modern methodologies that could help it be more productive and efficient and provide the sufficient supply for the respective given demand on the British market.

As mentioned, a serious of reasons came together to facilitate the development of a modern economy in Britain, among these economic, political, demographic and social elements were combined to create the best environment for such a development in Britain.

Bibliography

1. Jha, Saumitra. Shares, coalition formation and political development: evidence from seventeenth century England. Stanford University. 2008

2. Brenner, Robert. Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe. Past and Present, No. 76. February 1976

Jha, Saumitra. Shares, coalition formation and political development: evidence from seventeenth century England. Stanford University. 2008