[cperciva]

I think you're missing the critical step of "widespread rule of law". It leads to both democracy (because once people have rights, they exercise those rights to organize and demand more) and industrialization (because people will only build factories if they have confidence that their investments won't be stolen).

England had a head start thanks to the Magna Carta (which established the Parliament) and the Civil War (which gave it teeth); by the time the steam engine was invented, the rule of law was well established and industrialists didn't need to worry about having their work confiscated.