Industrial Revolution ~ 1700-1900
‘Necessity is my mother…’
Pre-industrial Europe
• Predominately
agricultural
• Subsistence farming
• Farmed on common land
– inefficient use of land
– Bad crop = famine
Agrarian Life
Domestic or Putting out System
• Piecework
• Most homes had looms &
spinning wheels to produce
homespun
• Entrepreneurs
– Families were provided
materials to make cloth
• Paid by the load
Changes in Agriculture 1700 –1860
! Need " #more land, #efficiency
$# people in agriculture
! ∴Δ agriculture system
! Netherlands
! drained swamps & a system of dykes
! # agri-land
! Great Britain
! General Enclosure Act accelerated
the process.
! 1727-1760 " 75,000 acres;
! 1760-1792 " 500,000 acres
! # agri-land
Enclosed Farm
! Peasants lost use of Commons
! Hurt small farmers
Advancements in Agricultural Technology
! Innovation " increased
efficiency
! Jethro Tull " mechanical drill
! Charles Townshend " use of
lime & potash as fertilizer
! Eli Whitney " cotton gin
! John Deere " mechanical
thresher
Mechanical Seed Drill
Advancements in Agricultural Technology
• These changes did not occur
in the most of Europe
• serfdom cont’d
• large landowners
– little interest in profits from
agriculture. (esp. C & E Europe)
Cotton Gin
• Govt resistance to land
enclosure (France)
• Advances in agriculture "
positive feedback loop
Requirements for Industrialism
! ! ! ! ! ! Resources
Agricultural Surplus
Capital
Entrepreneurs
Gov’t Support
Transportation System
Emergence of the factory system
• Goods previously mfg. by
artisans & their apprentices
• Domestic system couldn’t
keep pace w/ demand for
textiles
Spinning Jenny
– Bottleneck
– Major innovations forced move
from domestic system%factory
• cost of machinery too high
for most peasants
• size of machinery too
large for home
Emergence of the factory system
• Early factories developed where
the labor was—in rural regions
• Had adequate transportation
network
– Canals, roads, & railways
– Rivers & streams were used to
power new machinery (Arkwright’s
Waterframe)
• Working conditions
– Long hours, poor wages
– surplus labour pool benefited
owners
Emergence of the factory system
! Steam engine
! Factories could be located
almost anywhere
! Machinery could be steam
driven
! Locomotive
Steam Powered Factory
! Expanded and facilitated
movement of goods & people
! Req’d massive use of steel &
infrastructure
Emergence of the factory system
! Key to Industrialism
! Ore – esp. iron & coal
! Labour
! technology
! Advances in iron making led to
! Bessemer/Kelley Process
! Cort’s rolling mill shaped metal
while still red-hot
! Other foundry advances
allowed for forging of molten
ore into small & detailed parts
Steel Mill
! Facilitated interchangeable
parts (Whitney)
Justifications, Criticisms, and Effects of
Industrialism
Effects of Industrialism
! Social Changes
! New classes
! Captains of Industry
! Middle class
! Working class
! Industrial Family
! Separated family members
! Middle/upper class men sole
providers
! Working class culture bars and
gambling
" push for prohibition /
Temperance Movement
Social Changes
! General Population Growth
! Better diet
! Improved sanitation
! $death rate
! Urbanisation & migration
! Countryside " urban centers
! Housing & pollution
! # #people/bldg " unsafe
! # epidemics due to open sewers, high
density, insufficient water & trash
disposal " typhus, cholera
! Worker discontent " try to organise
! Labour unions
! Mfrs & govt oppose
! Unions viewed as a threat to business
! Transcontinental migration
! Americas, Australia, New Zealand
Industrialism & Women
! Working class – worked
! Poor working & living conditions
! No contraception
! Poor health care
! Frequent Victims of abuse
! Often resort to prostitution to
supplement income
! MC – “Cult of Domesticity”
! Stay @ home wife symbol of status
! Took care of family & home
! Charity work only acceptable
! Worked among poor
! Saw conditions of women & children
! Push for reforms to aid poor families
! Lack of progress "# demand for political
voice
Above – Women at Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, NYC
Below – Women who leapt out of 3rd floor window
when trapped as bldg caught fire (1911)
Industrialism & Children
! Cheap source of labour
! 3-4 children=1 adult male
! Runaway/abandoned children
! Urban crime & petty theft
! Added to # crime problem
! 1840-Child Labour Laws
! Limited type & length of work
! Raised min age to 12
! 1870 – British Compulsory
Education Act
! Required schooling 3hrs/day
! France -1881
! US -1837 in Mass; all by 1918
! Children removed from labour
force
# # adults needed in factories
! benefited men;
! $ male unemployment
# Wages for men
# Standard of living for working class
Above – Factory boys on Spinning Jenny
Below – Fagan, the Artful Dodger & Street urchins from Oliver
Capitalism -- The Economics of Industrialism
! Capitalism "replaces mercantilism as
major economic force
! Goal "to generate profit
! Entrepreneurs – men prepared to
invest their capital to make money
! What’s good for the entrepreneur is
good for everyone.
! ⇑ profit " ⇑ businesses " ⇑ jobs, ⇑
goods
! Competition is healthy; monopolies
are bad
! Commerce driven by law of SupplyDemand
! Government should not interfere w/
the normal conduct of business
Adam Smith (1723-90) Father of Capitalism &
author The Wealth of Nations
! ie. laissez-faire (leave be/alone)
The Economics of Industrialism
! Thomas Malthus – An Essay on the
Principle of Population
! Studied impact of urbanisation resulting
from industrialisation
! Population # faster than food supply
∴ always on the brink of famine
# workers > demand
∴$ wages & # unemployment
! Workers " no power
! Constant poverty for working classes
! Can’t bargain for livable wage
! Argued against govt. support of poor
! Only encourages laziness
! Early advocate for family planning
Malthusian Graph
! Fewer children solution to overpopulation &
surplus labour
Utopianism
! Robert Owen
! Critical of the profit motive
! Bosses do little & get all the
benefit " not fair
! Created a community centred
around textile mills
! Workers provided w/housing,
sanitation, education and a
social security
! based on cooperation instead
of competition.
! Scotland (New Lanark) and
Pennsylvania (New Harmony)
New Lanark –Cotton Mill
Communism
“Workers of the World, Unite!”
! Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
! All History is based on economic interaction
! 2 classes of people
! Property owners/capitalists = Bourgeoisie
! Workers = Proletariat
! Only own their labour
∴ Wage slaves
! Studied factory working conditions
! Industrialism de-humanizes workers
! Government & social institutions work to
strengthen & perpetuate control oppression of
proletariat
! Religion " opiate of the masses
! Once workers’ revolution begins, it will spread t/
o the world
Karl Marx, founder of Communism & author of The Communist
Manifesto (1848)
Communism
! Capitalism exploits workers
! Eventually workers will revolt
! Revolution will spread globally
! Communism will abolish private
property
! Everyone will be equal
! Classless society
! Communism attractive to urban
poor and factory workers
! Seen as threat to status quo by
business and esp. the M-C
“Worker of the World Unite”
Government Response to Industrialism
! Reform often designed to prevent revolution & violence
! Conservative, gradual reform
! React to major problems! disease, unsafe working/living conditions, " crime
! Building codes & Zoning
! Sewers, garbage collection
! Police & fire departments
! Expanded legal codes
! Prison reform
! Differentiate between Juveniles & Adults
! Hospitals
! Schools – compulsory education
Reform
! Source primarily from church & M-C
women
! Church charity work exposes plight of
working class mother & children
! M-C Women begin to push for reform
! improved living & working conditions for
working class
! child labour laws
! contraception
! Alcohol blamed for many problems
! Domestic violence
! Loss of job
! crime
∴ Start of Temperance movement
! Generally ignored by politicians
! Lack political voice " push for suffrage