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Old and New: Impact of Industrial Revolution
http://www.erih.net/industrial-history.html
Western Civilization's master narrative 1
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Stories of inventors & machines
http://www.victorianweb.org/technology/ir/irchron.html
British Industrialization
context
Reform Bill of 1832
• Changes to the British Parliamentary Electoral System
• Redistributed seats in parliament to eliminate “rotten boroughs” (elections controlled by powerful aristocratic families)
• Created 130 new seats to reflect population changes
• Reduced property and income requirements to make more men eligible to vote
• Increased electorate from 500,000 to 813,000 (total population 14 million)
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Exploitation of the working classes
Sadler Committee vs. Factory Commission
Great Britain
Report of the Select Committee on Factory Children’s Labour, 1832
Factory Commission Report, 1833
• Goal: reduce hours of children working in mills and factories (Ten Hours Movement)
• Factory workers, medical men, and other witnesses
• Public denunciation of revealed working conditions
• Accused of selecting prejudicial witnesses dedicated to proving horrible work conditions
• Accused of leading questions
• Justified need for legislation
• Goal: more balanced investigation of working conditions
• Conclusions:
• Children worked unduly long hours and hurting their health
• No clear evidence to corroborate Sadler conclusions of rampant immorality
• Beatings at work were anecdotal, not widespread
• Far more positive evaluation of mill owners
Factory Acts in Great Britain
• 1833 (a.k.a. Althorp’s Act)
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No children under 9 in mills; no children under 18 work at night;
Children ages 9‐13 no more than 8 hours + 1 hour lunch
Children 9‐13 had to prove they were getting 2 hours of education per day
Children 14‐18 no more than 12 hours + 1 hour lunch
Routine inspections were to be set up
• 1842 Mines and Collieries Act
• Prohibited all females and boys under ten from underground mine work
• Resulting from Children’s Employement Commission Report of 1842
• 1847 (Ten Hours Act)
• 10 hours shifts applied to women and children (13‐18 years)
Many more to follow:
1850, 1856, 1867, 1870, 1871, 1878, 1891, 1895, 1901, 1937, 1959, 1961
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Politicization of the working and middle classes
Industrialization and Classical Liberalism
Goals of Classical Liberalism
• Driven by enlightenment faith in reason, progress, social justice, natural laws
• Constitution
• Codification of laws
• Independent judiciary
• Equality before the law (e.g. civil, not necessarily political rights)
• Right to private property
• Freedoms of expression, assembly, worship
• laissez faire
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Classical Liberalism & Enlightenment • E.g. Adam Smith, 1723‐1790
Utilitarianism
• E.g. Jeremy Bentham, 1748‐1842
Callousness of Classical Liberalism
• E.g. Thomas Malthus, 1766‐1834
• Disease, malnutrition, and war are natural checks on population growth
• Interfering with natural laws of economy will cause more problems than be
solved
• Sympathized with the poor, but only they could improve their situation by
not contributing to over-population
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Humanitarian Liberalism
• E.g. John Stuart Mill, 1806‐1873
• Laissez faire does not apply in the cases of
“lunatic[s], an idiot, an infant” and children of
immature years.
• Women should be allowed to make their own
choices and be treated as equals (influenced by
Mary Wollstonecraft’s ideas)
Politicization of the working class
Chartist Movement, 1838‐1858
• Working class & urban movement
• Riots and demonstrations
Demands:
• Right to vote all men over 21
• Secret ballot
• No property qualifications for MPs (Members of Parliament)
• Payment for service as MPs
• Annual parliamentary elections
• Even more fair distribution of voting districts
Eventually most goals achieved:
• Reform Act of 1867 (urban working class men)
• 1918: full manhood suffrage
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Unionists
Trade unionists demonstrate in Copenhagen Fields to protest at the
deportation of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, 21 April 1834
Socialism, first half of 19th C
Owen
Began as a “diverse array of doctrines and social experiments” that emphasized cooperation, not competition. •Robert Owen (1771‐1858): Producers' cooperatives (New Lanark) and eventually communal living (New Harmony)
Saint Simon
• Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint Simon (1760‐1825): State produce and distribute goods; everyone has equal opportunity to develop talents 
social harmony
•Charles Fourier (1772‐1837): communal living in phalansteries
Socialism, later 19th C
Notables in later 19th C:
• Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon (1809‐1865): “Property is theft”; advocated socialism  free association of individuals should replace coercive state
• Mikhail Bakunin (1814‐1876): workers manage means of production through associations
• Socialists divided into reformers, who believed
legislation could bring reforms, and
revolutionaries, who believed that only a political
upheaval would bring change.
• Social harmony comes from cooperation, not
competition.
Proudhon
Bakunin
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Communism
• e.g. Karl Marx, • 1818‐1883
• Workers must own modes of production to end exploitation
• Violent revolution necessary/inevitable
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