The Industrial Revolution in Britain
Question:
Discuss about the Rise And Decline Of General Laws Of the Capitalism.
The industrial evolution in Britain has been perceived by the historians and the economics to be a turning point of the human history. This essay critically evaluates the social upheaval after the industrial revolution in Britain. By ending the supremacy of agricultural outcomes in trade, the industrial revolution increased the material wealth in the western world. Therefore, it initiated the drastic change in the social life of not only of Europe but also the entire world[1]. The regular life style and the work environment changed making the western world to be an urbanised civilisation. Radical schools of economy and philosophy started to replace the traditional ideology of the western people. The essay concludes with the fact that there was both bans and boons of the industrial revolution that changed the face of the economy, enhancing the living condition of people, creating scopes for the working women to stand independently, but on the other hand created abyss of the new working class, consisted of women and children.
It was the violent change in the society where the factory owners directed them like animals forgetting all moral and ethical boundaries. The industrial revolution began in the middle years of 1700s and continued till mid-1800s. The term ‘revolution’ has been used as no developments in the modern history affected the people all over the world more than the industrial revolution in Britain[2]. This revolution increased the material wealth, extended the life of human being and proved to be the most powerful force that changed the society completely. It altered the century old class structure of Europe, and organised the philosophical and social worldview of western people.
The society of pre-industrial Europe was static as well as dependant on the social privilege where the most powerful was the aristocratic class. They possessed the mills and the lands which used to transform the produced crops into materials[3]. Their power was mainly due to their ownership of these materials which later processed into food. The lowest was the peasant class whose life and time was invested in the production of agricultural wealth. They represented the most exploited class as their lives were dedicated to seasons and the direction of their landowners. These peasants were used in the lands for agricultural production and mills to produce the grains. The land owners used to impose taxes on these people which was the chief source of fund for construction roads, windmills, dams and canals in the town.
The society was divided clearly. Above these peasants there were the highly skilled craftsmen who enjoyed more power than the peasants. They had guilds which could control the standards, charges and wages. Then came the vibrant, both economically and politically powerful class of merchants. In the pre-industrial world, these merchants used to move goods and services through existing economic system. However, after the revolution all of these classes changed and a new class emerged which was complete responsible of the success and progress of the industrial revolution. These people had no better position of those of the peasants but they lived under bitter condition in unhealthy atmosphere and exploited like animals.
Pre-Industrial Society in Europe
The industrial economy of the United Kingdom had new sets of rules as well as time schedules for common labourers. The working environment moved indoors and the speed of their works changed drastically. The seasons were no longer applicable to the labourers’ time spent at jobs. Despite the fact that horse driven cars were replaced by machines, the situation of the new workers who had recently changed their expertise for the agriculture to industrial labour failed to cope up with the conditions made by new rules. An adult male was now expected to work for more than twelve hours a day all year long instead of seasonal break. It was a very tough transition for them.
After the countries of Europe managed to handle the first wave of revolution, they stated to synthesise all types of impact originated from the industrial revolution. The major effect of the industrial revolution was the incorporation of child and women labour in the industries. The industrial revolution transformed the structure of a traditional family as well as its role[4]. Previously, one family used to work as one unit of production where the women of the families used to nurture of their children in one hand and took part in grain production. The time of work and leisure was flexible as well as interwoven. The industrial revolution changed all these. As the male adults were forced to work under extreme conditions and earned money, the family structure was disturbed. The women found it difficult to manage the family economy hence participate in the factories as unskilled labourers.
The industrial revolution created scopes for women to get new opportunities as well as gain skills for earning but due to industrial revolutions they become more exposed to newer dangers. As the country had no welfare programs for aiding the poor women, the single women had to work for surviving. In the initial stages of the industrial revolution, the factories had greater number of women workers who were much and used to quit their jobs after marriage. Some of these women workers used to continue their work after marriage as they had to support their families and raised money to bring up their children.
These women used to work ten to fourteen hours a day sometimes 80 hours a week but were paid less that an adult man labourer. The mothers of the family often struggled to keep their children from working as child labourers[5]. There were stresses and worries present to survive in the society for the new mothers due to which the country demonstrated highest death rate of the infants. The factories had the power to create whatever policies they want to create to exploit their labourers, and these women and children workers were mostly powerless to do anything about them. Men usually took the responsibility of the super visors, hence the working conditions were unsanitary and unbearable for the women. In addition to this, women were more prone to be abused and sexually harassed by their superiors. They were not treated equally and often the easy target of discrimination.
New Class Emerged after the Revolution
There were no laws against the incorporation of the children and women in the deadly industries such as steel industries and coal mines. Nobody was bothered to concern authorities about the biohazardous materials handled in such industries. Unfortunately, women labours management became integral to these first factories[6]. As the first wave of the revolution initiated to change the operation in the textile industry, the skilled labours were replaced by the new power looms along with the spinning mules. Hence the factory owners used to hire unskilled labours who were cheap at that time, in order to decrease the cost of the production. In doing so, women labours were their first preference as they were the cheapest and could be exploited more than adult men labourers. These women labours used to handle the simplest of machines and performed repetitive tasks. Moreover, the maintaining tasks such as fitting into a tight space, could be performed more easily by the women and children labourers than the adult men despite the fact that these had more harmful and prone to unfortunate accidents[7]. Moreover, the factory owners preferred to hire the women to the adult male counterparts because they did not join the workers’ union and went on strike for increasing their salaries. The most interesting part of all was that the women and child labourers were paid 1/10 of the wages paid to an adult man. Therefore, the children even under seven years were employed heavily in the deadliest of factories in Britain. A research revels that by 1789, 2/3 of total workers working in the spinning factories in Britain were women and children.
In addition to this, most tedious as well as dangerous factories such as chemical colour factories and coal mines used to employ the younger women most because most of the adult men labourers did not wish to get hired in such factories due to high risk of accidents and negative effects of their health[8]. The health condition of the women was so poor that they looked sickly, ill-looking and suffering from malnutrition. This was because both the management and living condition of these labourers are below those of the animals.
These women unlike their male counterparts, used to work under tough and tragic conditions. They used to toil with no vacation as well as holidays. Most of the industries do not follow any safety measures for the women hence they were more exposed to the dangerous chemicals and machines. In case of any accident occurred, these women labourers were abandoned from the moment when an accident occurred, their wages were stopped[9]. These women labourers had no union hence nobody cared for any medical attendance to be provided. Most unfortunately, no compensation was afforded for any extent of the injury. Under the poor law of 1834, the government built the poorhouses for the poor families where the factory owners used to employ both husband and wife in their factories. The government designed these workhouses as prisons. These were so severe and so repulsive, the common poor people did not want to enter those houses in order to work.
Impact on Working Environment and Schedule
Initially the women workers used to feel independent as they started working as their male counterparts. After years of suffering as inferiors to men their situation gradually changed for the women labourers. They started to get involved in the society where they lived. The industrialization created scopes for the women and they were not regarded inferior to men, but they were presented as their competition[10]. Despite the fact that women were not paid as equally as men, but their presence and power was worsening the influences for men workers in a factory setting. The women have been performing many other roles that operating the simplest of machines that were formerly done by them but they started to work as efficiently as their men counterparts. Women entering labour force originated a plethora of many societal changes both legally and politically because large part of the manufacturing as well as factory industries familiarized by the industrial revolution was occupied by these women[11]. It had affected many of the other members of the western society. These women labourers began to participate actively in the protests or campaigns in which they fought for women labour rights. These women were as much as efficient as their male counterparts but needed only half of the wages than the wages of the male workers[12]. This made the situation for the men workers dicier and they began to struggle for keeping their positions from the women labourers. They started to gather together in the unions for protecting their positions from the women labourers taking their places for cheaper wage. In addition to this, keeping the woman away from the factories become chief motto of the political and religious leaders.
With the introduction of women labourer in the industries social and family ethics changed which created scope of the criticism. Firstly, these working women were granted to be responsible for the lives of their children. This was due to the fact that the children of these working mothers were left to fend themselves as well as their younger siblings. Hence the faultfinders started to criticise that the absence of mother in home had greatly increased the cases of ingnorance and death rates of the infants. Women working in the factories were granted to have lower fertility rate or abused as prostitutes[13]. As mentioned before, the women initially working in the factories used to be unmarried. These women were granted to be masculine hence not perfect for being wives as well as future home-makers. In addition to this, the working mothers tended to encourage their children for joining them as workforce. This created the epidemic of child labourer as argued by the sociologists.
Women who worked in the factories were considered to be the most tangible explanation for upsurge for the infant mortality as well as decrease of life expectancy. The constant death of the new born and the young kids under the age of seven was considered to be a result of all the social evils initiated by the women inflowing the labour force in the factories. As a counter argument, it can be said that there was a large influx of labourers from the rural areas due to industrial revolution.[14] Hence many mothers might not have a reliable as well as accessible families with whom they could leave their children at the time of their work. For many a critic, this was a reason, that the eighteenth century recorded an upsurge in the infant death rates. In order to decrease the infant mortality, the government attempted to take initiative for keeping these children in the poorhouses. However, this attempt failed along with which the death rates sustained to increase. Numerous cases of this time demonstrated that the children had been often malnourished due to starvation. The owners and the supervisors of the factories reported that they had many women labourers who used to work even at the time of pragnacy and worked up to the closer days before giving birth[15]. These women used to return after few days leaving their new-born babies. The commentators claimed that these working woman were selfish as well as preferred to be working than to reproduce or create their families. These critics however, failed to understand the economic imbalance in the society that completed these mothers to earn for surviving their babies[16].
Impact on Family Structure and Women’s Role
Therefore, it can be concluded that with the introduction of the industrial revolution has changed the society completely. As there was an economic change, a concentrated number of people had more power as they had economy in their hands. These people created various norms and regulations for the new emerging working class. This working class was consisted of men previously working as peasants under the land owners, female previously responsible as homemakers and most importantly the child labourers. The happy picture of a satisfied family now changed due to fast life originated from the industrial revolution. These workers worked under tremendous stress and were subjected to exploitation. The children and women were in the most vulnerable position which gradually resulted in the suffrage movement. The economic discrimination among the men and women created upheaval in the society towards the end of the 18th century. It was the result why the women labourers started to band together and fight for equal rights in the factories. Despite the fact that many researchers have criticised these women working in the industries avoiding taking care of their children, the actual reason why these women came out of the indoors was purely for survival. It eventually caused to political alterations for many laws as well as regulations in order to betterment of the position of women in the modern society.
References:
Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. “The rise and decline of general laws of capitalism.” Journal of Economic management 29.1 (2015): 3-28.
Allen, Robert C. “The high wage economy and the industrial revolution: a restatement.” The Economic History Review 68.1 (2015): 1-22.
Clapp, Brian William. An environmental history of Britain since the Industrial Revolution. Routledge, 2014.
Cunningham, Hugh. Leisure in the Industrial Revolution: C. 1780-c. 1880. Routledge, 2016.
De Vries, Jan. “The industrial revolution and the industrious revolution.” The Journal of Economic History 54.2 (1994): 249-270.
Duffy, Ian PH. Bankruptcy and insolvency in London during the industrial revolution. Vol. 1. Routledge, 2017.
Hartwell R, ‘The Causes Of The Industrial Revolution: An Essay In Methodology’ (1965) 18 The Economic History Review.
Hartwell, Ronald Max, ed. The causes of the Industrial Revolution in England. Vol. 3. Routledge, 2017.
Hudson, Pat. The industrial revolution. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.
Lindert PJ Williamson, ‘English Workers’ Living Standards During The Industrial Revolution: A New Look’ (1983) 36 The Economic History Review
Meredith, David. “The Path to Sustained Growth: England’s Transition from an Organic Economy to an Industrial management Revolution, by EA Wrigley.” The English Historical Review(2018).
Morrison-Low, Alison D. Making scientific instruments in the industrial revolution. Routledge, 2017.
Nicholas SD Oxley, ‘The Living Standards Of Women During The Industrial Revolution, 1795-1820’ (1993) 46 The Economic History Review
Pearson, Robin. Insuring the industrial revolution: fire insurance in Great Britain, 1700–1850. Taylor & Francis, 2017.
Sommer, Lutz. “Industrial revolution-industry 4.0: Are German manufacturing SMEs the first victims of this revolution?.” Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management 8.5 (2015): 1512.
Trew, Alex. “Spatial takeoff in the first industrial revolution.” Review of Economic Dynamics 17.4 (2014): 707-725.
Tuttle, Carolyn. “Child labor during the British industrial revolution.” EH Net Encyclopaedia (2015).
[1] Allen, Robert C. “The high wage economy and the industrial revolution: a restatement.” The Economic History Review 68.1 (2015): 1-22.
[2] Clapp, Brian William. An environmental history of Britain since the Industrial Revolution. Routledge, 2014.
[3] Cunningham, Hugh. Leisure in the Industrial Revolution: C. 1780-c. 1880. Routledge, 2016.
[4] Duffy, Ian PH. Bankruptcy and insolvency in London during the industrial revolution. Vol. 1. Routledge, 2017.
[5] Hudson, Pat. The industrial revolution. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.
[6] Hartwell R, ‘The Causes Of The Industrial Revolution: An Essay In Methodology’ (1965) 18 The Economic History Review.
[7] Nicholas SD Oxley, ‘The Living Standards Of Women During The Industrial Revolution, 1795-1820’ (1993) 46 The Economic History Review
[8] Meredith, David. “The Path to Sustained Growth: England’s Transition from an Organic Economy to an Industrial Revolution, by EA Wrigley.” The English Historical Review(2018).
[9] Allen, Robert C. “The high wage economy and the industrial revolution: a restatement.” The Economic History Review 68.1 (2015): 1-22.
[10] Hartwell, Ronald Max, ed. The causes of the Industrial Revolution in England. Vol. 3. Routledge, 2017.
[11] Lindert PJ Williamson, ‘English Workers’ Living Standards During The Industrial Revolution: A New Look’ (1983) 36 The Economic History Review
[12] earson, Robin. Insuring the industrial revolution: fire insurance in Great Britain, 1700–1850. Taylor & Francis, 2017.
[13] Tuttle, Carolyn. “Child labor during the British industrial revolution.” EH Net Encyclopaedia (2015).
[14] Sommer, Lutz. “Industrial revolution-industry 4.0: Are German manufacturing SMEs the first victims of this revolution?.” Journal of Industrial Engineering and Mnagement 8.5 (2015): 1512.
[15] Trew, Alex. “Spatial takeoff in the first industrial revolution.” Review of Economic Dynamics 17.4 (2014): 707-725.
[16] Morrison-Low, Alison D. Making scientific instruments in the industrial revolution. Routledge, 2017.
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