The little industrial revolution in the Netherlands was how wind energy was used to turn Zaandam, the region above Amsterdam into one of the premier shipbuilding facilities in the Netherlands, able to turn out 1 ship every two days. And it was likewise a combination of technological factors, geographical and historical factors that enabled it.

Geographical

• Amsterdam's position was great for trade, for both Canal/Atlantic trade, trade via inland barges and most importantly, the Baltic sea routes.
• Via the Baltic Amsterdam had access to lumber forests from Scandinavia (as the Netherlands never had much forests)

Technological

• New ship designs like the Fluit which required fewer personal to man, meaning cheaper trade (at the max, half of the ships passing through the Kattegat at Denmark were Dutch)
• New windmill innovation, in the crankshafts for transferring power and new designs for lumber cutting with reciprocating blades

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and to truly create Amsterdam's golden century, lots of historical opportunities, among which:

• the discovery of new sea routes to the indies
• the availability of much manpower in the form of refugees from the 30 year war; the availability and knowledge of new forms of finance from rich Huguonets and Belgium refugees from the 80 year war both drawn in part by Amsterdam's religious freedoms.

Which allowed Amsterdam to turn the reliable Baltic trade into investments in the far east, in turn powering investment into the Netherlands and a golden age of arts. Do keep in mind that many of these sort of things interact with each other, similarly as in the English industrial revolution.

I'm both an Archeologist and a Mechanical engineering by education, so I always loved these kind of technological foundations to large cultural/historical changes.

I only missed a little bit more fleshed out argument about the possible usage of wind power. It in itself could have triggered a 'little industrial revolution'. Like we have in the Netherlands where it turned into a economic powerhouse in a short amount of time. That also required a perfect combination of factors, like England in this example. But those would have been more present in the Roman empire.

Btw, I love your argument about the requirements of machining and precision. I always made the same argument about why a blacksmith wouldn't be able to create a good motor block from scratch. And that this is one of the reasons you can't just 'skip' technologies.

The industrial revolution also enabled societies to create new forms (of metal), because it allowed for options to create higher forces, pressures, then ever before. It were great steam presses that enable making the plates for the Great Eastern, for example.