“The mistake people make is thinking that the Industrial Revolution was a technological change. It was not, it was an ideological change.”
I go with technology.
What people miss are is the moral revolution that occurred with the IR. Until quite recent history when people looked at these two scenarios:
1) Stealing 10 shillings from a village wagon maker
2) Opening a competing wagon maker that put the first one out of business
They would see #2 as a greater or equal crime to #1. That is what needed to change.