I also disagree with Devereaux's view that the industrial revolution would very likely only been possible in the specific English circumstances.
In a specific sense, market pressures, high demand and the depletion of readily available resources have led to continuous pressure for energy- and labour-saving innovations in mining in general since at least the 1500s. The copper mines of Falun and Røros in Scandinavia (where large mining operations started in the mid 1600s) present examples of that trend.
In a more general sense, one can observe a continuous improvement of mechanisation and material in production during the Middle Ages with an increase of innovations and technical understanding in the 1600s. This was a general trend that, even if it were following a different trajectory, would have meant an every increasing accumulation of technological knowledge. Perhaps the electric motor would have been invented before the steam engine or oil had been exploited before coal -- and everything would have taken a little longer. But with technical knowledge expanding further and faster, it would only have been a matter of time before economically viable applications for primitive heat engines emerged.
In a specific sense, market pressures, high demand and the depletion of readily available resources have led to continuous pressure for energy- and labour-saving innovations in mining in general since at least the 1500s. The copper mines of Falun and Røros in Scandinavia (where large mining operations started in the mid 1600s) present examples of that trend.
In a more general sense, one can observe a continuous improvement of mechanisation and material in production during the Middle Ages with an increase of innovations and technical understanding in the 1600s. This was a general trend that, even if it were following a different trajectory, would have meant an every increasing accumulation of technological knowledge. Perhaps the electric motor would have been invented before the steam engine or oil had been exploited before coal -- and everything would have taken a little longer. But with technical knowledge expanding further and faster, it would only have been a matter of time before economically viable applications for primitive heat engines emerged.