The Revolution in Energy and Industry

“Quite possibly only the developments of agriculture during

the Neolithic times had a comparable impact and significance

Great Britain

Problems– No previous models

• Social relations

• Urbanization

– War with France 1793-1815• Trade interruptions

– But… • War on the Continent not in Great Britan

• War demands inventions

• Winners acquire resources

Eighteenth - Century Origins

Atlantic – economy – Expanded after 1780’s– Outlawed slave-trade 1807

Natural Advantages

Water transportation– Ports everywhere– Built canals

Larger coal and iron deposits

Island nation – no tariffs

Agricultural Revolution

Large crop production- cheap food

Excess income to purchase manufactured goods

Complements demand from colonies

Central Bank and credit markets and

Stable government after 1688– eases credit

Government encouraged personal initiative and free markets

Large landless work force- “the proletariat.”

Cottage industry– Entrepreneurs– Semi- skilled work force

Real growth in industrialism– Begins between 1780 and 1789– Political and economic revolutions occur at the same

time

Great Britain– In full swing 1801-1831– Complete 1850

But does has little impact on the continent until after 1815

The First Factories

Produce more goods for growing marketsTextile Industry – Spinning Jenny- 1765 Hargreaves – Water Frame – 1765 Arkwright

Machines demand larger power source – Factories– Better control of capital and labor

Made Things Better!

Masses could afford cloth– Underwear

Cottage industries– Enough yarn– Spinning Jenny

• Weavers wages rose until 1792

• Power looms will takeover after 1800

Got Labor?Solved… Orphans

Parishes– Apprenticed foundlings– Factory owners paid them less– Exploitation at an unprecedented scale

The Industrial Landscape

Identify and describe the changes the landscape in Great Britain from the 1780’s to the 1830’s?– Physically– Psychologically– Socially

Steam Engine Breakthrough

Coal as a source of energy

Steam engines pump water out of mines– Necomen 1705 inefficient– Watt 1769… efficient

• Increase in skilled workers

• Precision parts

• Forms partnership with wealthy business men

• 1780’s commercial success

Steam Engines and Industry

Mining

Textiles

Mills

Metals– Making – Shaping

1844 a world leader in production

Energy Problem

Human and animal power

Many inventions with wind and water helped, but not enough– More people – Less wood– Less iron production – imports from Russia?

The Coming of the Railroads

Steam powerRails already used in coal wagons1830 the Rocket1850 main rail lines were completed– More goods shipped– More timely and inexpensive– Price could be lowered– Local artisans suffered– Peasants build the railway

Railroads Change Values

Speed– 1850… 50 miles per hour

Power– Massive structures

Language– Off track– Full head of steam– Toot your own whistle

Industry and Population

1750 2% of worlds production of ndustrial goods

1860 20%

Population boomed from 9 to 20 mil, and they were more wealthy

Malthus and Ricardo- Economists

Malthus– Law of Diminishing Returns

• Population grows rapidly

• No village constraints

• Production lags

• Mass famine and death

• Cycle continues

Economists … Continued

Ricardo– Iron Law of Wages

• Population increase would lower wages

• Wages would be just high enough to keep people alive

• There will only be enough people as wages will allow

Industrialism in Continental Europe

National Variations– Compared to Britain 1750 to 1913

• USA well behind then surpasses

• Germany is far behind and then gets close

• France remains in the middle through-out

• China and India close then almost nonexistent

Continental Challenges

French Revolution and Napoleon

English education of skilled labor

Needed large sums of money

Labor shortages

Landowners and governments were suspicious of new industries

After 1815

“Borrow” English ideas– Cockerill takes industry across the channel

• Belguim

• The rest of Europe

– Harkort – “the Watt of Germany”

Artisan and foreign products remained in demand– Middle class income created demand

Tariff support by Governments

France taxes British goods to build railway

Belgium creates state owned railway

Prussia state treasury would support the process … Less risk for inestor

Frederick List… Non – industrialized nations will not be able to defend themselves

The Zollverein

1834 allowed goods to move among certain German states without tariffs and directing a single tariff at all other nations

List denounces British free-trade – Hindus– Serfs

Extols the virtues of economic nationalism

Continental Banks

Private– Less likely to take risks

1830 Belgian banks– Limit investor liability– Attracted many shareholders and lots of money– Used money to fund industries

France’s Credit Mobilier

Capital and Labor

19th Century – golden age of the middle class.

Class-consciousness

Factory Owners– Merchant families– Modest means– Great opportunity early, but little later on.– Formal education - wealthy

Factory Owners continued…

Wives and daughters – valued for “gentility” (middle-class)

The New Factory Workers

Life of workers improved after 1850

Those that did not agree– “Satanic” mills – Blake - Romanticist– “Destruction of the rural life” Wordsworth– Luddites – destroy the factories– Middle class are “mass murderers.” Engles

Others Wrote

“The workers can afford more necessities and luxuries.” Chadwick

Scholarly statistical studies…– Early years 1780-1820 things were bad

• Food prices up

• Wages down

1840 50 % increase in purchasing power

What we Don’t Know

How much unemployment?

How many more hours did they work?

Wartime mood????

What We Do Know

More varied diet– Potatoes– Fruits– Dairy– Veggies

Conditions of Work

Paupers were recruited

By 1802 forbidden by Parliament

Carried over working traditions– Worked as Families– Young children were employed to satisfy their

parents

When managers began to discipline the children that is when the complaints started

Parliament Supported reforms– Robert Owen – less than 10yrs old was bad– Factory Act 1833 – 9 to 13 yrs old 8 hours. 14-

18 12 hours– Employment of children declined rapidly

Sexual Division of Labor

Men were the primary wage earner

Housework for the females– Married women worked less after their first child

– When married women did work they were from the poorest families

– Unmarried women worked

– All of these jobs were for low wages

– The formula for contemporary society

Why?

Traditional patriarchal sexism

Or, combination of economic and biological factors– The clock and the machine were hard on

women– Women as care taker of children

• Breast feeding on the job was outlawed

• House work was extremely demanding

Men and women working together led to liaisons and unwanted pregnancy

Separate them and to have control of their sexual behavior

Women worked in mines without shirts

“All the workers against a few masters.”

The Combination Acts 1813-14– Disregarded regulated wages– Many times disregarded and proceeded with

collective actions – strike

1824 Parliament repeals the Combination Acts

The Grand National Consolidated Trades Union… Din not work… back to smaller unions

Mines Act of 1842…Prohibited underground work for women– Some women protested – Many that could afford it did not

Early labor Movement in Britain

1850 most jobs were on the farm

Second largest employment domestic servants

Cotton and Coal– Dominated by large firms– Small workshops did give employees

alternatives

The Chartist Movement

Directed at political activity– All men should vote– Limit of a ten hour day– Duty free importation of Wheat