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by HPsquared 64 days ago
Britain was a little bit industrialised even before the steam engine. There were windmills and water mills. Steam massively accelerated it, but industry did exist before.
2 comments

If a windmill or a water mill is a sign of industrialisation, then large parts of the world were industrialised.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ancient_watermills

Commons in England were being enclosed in the Tudor age. It caused a great deal of social unrest, even rebellion. It had little to do with technology, and was mostly caused by population growth.