I disagree.
As the article says, the key factor in the Industrial Revolution is not the development of technology. We have always had brilliant individuals and groups that create new ways of doing things. The key factor in actually changing things is whether the society as a whole allows these individuals to move forward and actually implement their ideas, especially when they are able to profit from their inventiveness and interact with others. When this happens, one invention is able to build on another and a continuous process of development and improvement can begin.
China created most of the world’s technological advances prior to about 1500 AD. It essentially stalled out at that level due to government clamping down on innovation. The far less controlled and diverse society of Europe, with the England at least partially created by Henry VIII leading the way, went in a couple of hundred years from rough military and cultural equality with China and India to being far ahead of them. The reason was that individuals could change things in Europe. In China they could not. They weren’t allowed to.
England??? Leading the way??? WHAT history are you reading?? Certainly not planet earth's. The countries "leading the way" were Catholic (Spain, Portugal and France). The main PROTESTANT country in the effort was Holland. England was completely a "Johnny come lately" to the field (see "America--discovery of").