The Romantic Age, 1815 - 1848:The Industrial Revolution
“What’s that smell?”
Overview• The Industrial Revolution will be one of
the most important shifts in human history
• It will begin in England, but at first as an Agricultural Revolution
• Topics– Agricultural Revolution– Industrial Revolution
Agricultural Revolution
Technological Innovation
Seed Drill
New plow Thresher
Enclosure• Old feudal land
arrangements now useless
• Parliament passed “enclosure” acts closing off common land
• Led to higher crop yields
Industrial Revolution
Why England?£Colonial Empire (land)
£ Available Capital (money)
£ Available workers (labor)
Textiles
Flying shuttle
Spinning jenny
Cotton Gin Steam Engine
Railroads
Population Shift
Manchester
Social Changes£Landed nobility became less important£“Cotton Lords” & Entrepreneurs dominated society
•Poor, working class
Oliver; "Please, sir, I want some more."
Ned Ludd [a mythical figure supposed to live in
Sherwood Forest]
Attacks on the “frames” [power looms].
The Luddites
Classical Economics
Thomas Malthus
David Ricardo
• “Manchester School”• Ideas
– Free market, little government regulation, & no tariffs
– “iron law of wages”– System is naturally
occurring
Summary£For the lower classes, it was an improvement
¢Exploitation had existed before¢Did allow for an increase in life expectancy
£Upper classes, the bourgeoisie got richer and richer - intermarried with nobility£A new middle class formed
¢Factory managers, skilled labor¢Lawyers, doctors, etc
£Urbanization allowed for the rapid spread of ideas!
¢Newspapers and print culture
