The Industrial Revolution

Mechanization, Urban Growth, Consumption, “Proletarianization”

How did the world go from this?

To this?

A New Agricultural Revolution

Improved Methods of

Farming

Enclosure Movement

Population Explosion

•Dikes for land reclamation•Fertilizer•Seed Drill – Jethro Tull•Crop rotation

•Rich landowners fenced in land formerly shared by peasant farmers.•Output rose with fewer workers•Tenants displaced•Moved to cities

•Britain’s population rose from 5 million in 1700 to 9 million in 1800.•Declining death rates•Reduced risk of famine.

Mechanization

• During the first half of the 19th century, the European manufacturing process shifted from small-scale production by hand at home to large-scale production by machine in a factory setting.

At the Expense of Workers

• The shift meant high quality products at competitive prices, but often at the expense of workers. For example, the raw wool and cotton that fed the British textile mills came from:

• Lands converted from farming to sheep raising, leaving farm workers without jobs

• The southern plantations of the United States, which were dependent upon slave labor

James Watt’s Steam Engine: World Changing Invention

James Watt's improvements in 1769 and 1784 to the steam engine converted a machine of limited use, to one of efficiency and many applications.

James Watt’s Steam Engine: World Changing Invention

• Watt’s improved steam engine was the foremost energy source in the emerging Industrial Revolution, and greatly multiplied its productive capacity.

James Watt’s Steam Engine: World Changing Invention

Watt was a creative genius who radically transformed the world from an agricultural society into an industrial one. Through Watt’s invention of the first practical steam engine, our modern world eventually moved from a 90% rural basis to a 90% urban basis.

James Watt’s Steam Engine: World Changing Invention

Improved steam engines led to improved systems for transporting people and factory goods.

Urbanization• In the mid 1700s, more than half the population

of Britain lived and worked on farms.• Between 1750 and 1851, displaced farming

families moved to the cities to work in the new factories.

Urban Growth

• Those who could no longer make a living on the land migrated from the countryside to the cities to seek work in the factories.

5025

0255075

100

% Population

England &Wales

France &Germany

EasternEurope

1850: Population Living in Cities

Population Growth

• At the same time, the population of Europe continued to grow.

0

10

20

30

40

Millions

1831

1851

The Plight of the Cities

• The sheer number of human beings put pressure on city resources:

• Housing, water, sewers, food supplies, and lighting were completely inadequate.

• Slums grew and disease, especially cholera, ravaged the population.

• Crime increased and became a way of life for those who could make a living in no other way.

Urban Living Conditions

• Factory owners rushed to build housing

• Back to back row houses

• Several people in very small spaces

• Poor sanitation• High disease rates• Crime• Massive pollution

Conditions in the Countryside• The only successful farmers were

those with large landholdings who could afford agricultural innovations.

• Most peasants:• Didn’t have enough land to support

themselves• Were devastated by poor harvests

(e.g., the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-47)

• Were forced to move to the cities to find work in the factories.

Urban Living Conditions

CITY GENTRY TRADESPEOPLE LABORERS

Rutland 52 41 38

Truro 40 33 28

Derby 49 38 21

Manchester 38 20 17

Bethnal Green

45 26 16

Liverpool 35 22 15

Average Age at Death for Different Classes

Rutland – agricultural area in central EnglandTruro – tin mining centerOther locations – major industrial

centers

The Labor Force• No single description could include all

of these 19th century workers:• Factory workers• Urban artisans• Domestic system craftsmen• Household servants• Miners• Countryside peddlers• Farm workers• Railroad workers

• Variations in duties, income, and working conditions made it difficult for them to unite.

The Condition of Labor

• All working people, however, faced possible unemployment, with little or no provision for security.

• In addition, they were subject to various kinds of discipline:

• The closing of factory gates to late workers

• Fines for tardiness• Dismissal for drunkenness• Public censure for poor quality

workmanship• Beatings for non-submissiveness

Working Conditions and Wages

• Common working day: 12 – 14 hours

• One short break for lunch• Work week: 6 days per

week• 80 degree heat• Workers were beaten if

they did not perform well.• Hot, polluted factory air.• Workers risked losing

limbs from the machines.• Low wages.

Child Labor

• Children shifted from farm work to factory work.

• 12 – 14 hour days• 6 day weeks• Lower wages than

adults.• Began at age 5.• Mining work

deformed bodies.

Child Labor• As concerns about the

welfare of children rose in mid 1800s, Parliament held investigations into working conditions.

• New laws and new labor unions improved conditions.

The Role of the Railroads

• The railroads, built during the 1830s and 1840s:

• Enabled people to leave the place of their birth and migrate easily to the cities.

• Allowed cheaper and more rapid transport of raw materials and finished products.

• Created an increased demand for iron and steel and a skilled labor force.

Family Structures Changed• With the decline of the domestic system

and the rise of the factory system, family life changed.

• At first, the entire family, including the children, worked in the factory, just as they had at home.

• Later, family life became fragmented (the father worked in the factory, the mother handled domestic chores, the children went to school).

Family as a Unit of Consumption• In short, the European family

changed from being a unit of production and consumption to being a unit of consumption alone.

Gender-Determined Roles

• That transformation prepared the way for gender-determined roles.

• Women came to be associated with domestic duties, such as housekeeping, food preparation, child rearing and nurturing, and household management.

• The man came to be associated almost exclusively with breadwinning.

• New inventions and development of factories

• Rapidly growing industry in the 1800s

• Increased production and higher demand for raw materials

•Growth of worldwide trade

• Population explosion and a large labor force

• Exploitation of mineral resources

• Highly developed banking and investment system

• Advances in transportation, agriculture, and communication

Economic Effects

• Child labor laws to end abuses

• Reformers urging equal distribution of wealth (i.e. Karl Marx)

• Trade unions

• Social reform movements, such as utilitarianism, utopianism, socialism, and Marxism

• Reform bills in Parliament

Political Effects

The Industrial Revolution

• Long hours worked by children in factories• Increase in

population of cities• Poor city planning • Loss of family

stability • Expansion of middle

class• Harsh conditions for

laborers•Workers’ progress

vs. laissez-faire economic attitudes • Improved standard

of living• Creation of new jobs• Encouragement of

technological progress

Social Effects

Economists of the Industrial Revolution

• Adam Smith: advocated laissez- faire economics. No government regulation of business. A free market will produce more goods at lower prices, making them affordable by everyone. The basis of Capitalism.

• Thomas Malthus: Population will outpace the food supply

• David Ricardo: Poor having too many children, thus leading to a high labor supply and lower wages.

Reformers

• Jeremy Bentham: utilitarianism – “greatest happiness for the greatest number.”

• John Stuart Mill: advocated government help for the poor and giving the vote to workers and women.

• Robert Owen: actually built a factory based on the idea that an employer could offer decent living and working conditions and still make a profit.

Karl Marx

• Scientific socialism• Economics really a

struggle between the “haves” (upper class and merchants) and the “have nots” (proletariat working class.)

• Advocated a workers’ revolution to replace private ownership of property with cooperative ownership.

• Led to system of Communism.

“Proletarianization”

• During the century, factory workers underwent a process of proletarianization (i.e., they lost control of the means of production).

• Factory owners provided the financial capital to construct the factory, to purchase the machinery, and to secure the raw materials.

• The factory workers merely exchanged their labor for wages.