how did the industrial revolution impact society 
although the industrial revolution began more than 200 years ago it is a period that left a profound impact on how people lived and the way businesses operated arguably the factory systems developed during the industrial revolution are responsible for creating capitalism and the modern cities of today before this period most households subsisted by farming and lived primarily in small rural communities with the advent of factories during the 18th century people began working for companies located in urban areas for the first time often the wages were low and conditions harsh however working for such businesses still paid a better living wage than farming 5production efficiency improved during the industrial revolution with inventions such as the steam engine which dramatically reduced the time it took to manufacture products 3 more efficient production subsequently reduced prices for products primarily due to lower labor costs opening the marketing doors to a new level of customers the industrial revolution developed in conjunction with the capitalist economies business owners capitalists began to organize labor centrally into factories and introduced a division of labor to increase output and profitability compared with the craft and guild systems that preceded it capitalist production incentivized technological change and innovation at an unprecedented rate the industrial revolution was driven in part by the adoption of coal as an energy source before the use of coal wood was the primary energy source coal provided three times more energy than wood and britain had large coal deposits 67