Belgium: The Continent's First Industrializer

Belgium was the first country in continental Europe to industrialize on a large scale. It shared key advantages with Britain: coal and iron ore in the Sambre-Meuse valley of Wallonia, a tradition of textile production around Ghent and Verviers, and dense trading networks. British expertise crossed the Channel despite British laws restricting the emigration of skilled workers and the export of machinery.

William Cockerill, an English mechanic, built textile machines in Verviers from 1799, and his son John Cockerill founded a huge ironworks and engineering complex at Seraing, near Liège, in 1817. After independence in 1830, the new Belgian state built a national railway network, opening the first line, between Brussels and Mechelen, in 1835. Belgium shows how industrialization spread through transferred skills, local resources and active government support, rather than simply copying Britain.