Download The Industrial Revolution - Herbert Hoover High School

Chapter 14
The Industrial Revolution, 1750 to 1900
In the last chapter we discussed Sovereignty and Nationalism in the Euro American World; now we come to
the second great revolution of World History. The Agricultural Revolution (a transition sometimes called
the First Agricultural Revolution) had transformed hunter gatherer societies into Agricultural societies; the
Industrial Revolution transformed agricultural societies into industrial societies. The critical component
was that machines replaced human hands and animal power in the production process. This revolution
began a massive technological, economic and social change around the world which is still evolving.
The Industrial Revolution is generally divided into two periods: the First Industrial Revolution began with
mechanization of the textile industries, the development of iron and coal industries and the development of
the steam engine. This first revolution began around 1750 in Great Britain and spread to Europe, North
America. The Second Industrial Revolution emerged around 1850 when technology and economic progress
caused the development of steam powered ships, railways, the internal combustion engine and electrical
power generation. By 1900, the factory had become the predominant site of industrial production in the
Euro American world and Japan.
Scholars debate whether the new technologies developed after World War I were another Industrial
Revolution; others debate whether we are in an Atomic Age after the World War II development of Atomic
fission; and still others claim we are in a Third Industrial Revolution or the information highway and the
world of computers. But the bottom line is that, as the Industrial Revolution grew, so did the sophistication
of its machines and technologies, such as interchangeable parts and assembly lines all the way to the modern
information highway and computers. And the lives of people were changed dramatically.
I - Industrialization and Great Britain
In many ways the Industrial Revolution was simply an extension of what early capitalist society had already
created. It was capitalism that had raised material standards of living and increased demand for consumer
goods. Strong consumer demand – in turn - encouraged manufacturers to seek greater efficiency so they
could increase production – and, of course, reap greater profits. Industrialization came first to Great Britain
and several factors played a role in her early lead:
1. Great Britain was blessed with large deposits of coal and iron ore, so that two key components of the
machine age were readily at hand. Some scholars feel this was the single most important factor that
caused Britain to lead the way in the Industrial Revolution.
2. The puritans had given to England the Protestant Work Ethic which many scholars feel was crucial in
creating an entrepreneurial class which was not only hard working but also willing to take risks. The
idea was put in 1905 by Max Weber who wrote that the Industrial Revolution occurred because the
Protestant (particularly Calvinist) ethic influenced large numbers of people to engage in work in the
secular world. Although the theory has been criticized because non-Protestant areas of Europe such as
Northern Italy also developed an equally strong personal work ethic, nonetheless, this Puritan work ideal
with its middle class origins does help to explain the advent of the Industrial Revolution in England.
3. Great Britain also produced inventors and skilled craftsmen who turned their talents to the invention and
refinement of new machinery. They were quick to share knowledge. One method was by informal
philosophical societies, like the Lunar Society of Birmingham, which flourished between 1765 and
1809 and whose members discussed natural philosophy' (i.e., science) and its application to
manufacturing. It was a time when encyclopedias and technical journals sprang up everywhere.
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4. Large landowners in England began to buy up peasant land and cultivated new crops in large fields
called Enclosures where they experimented with new forms of Agriculture technology. This British
Agricultural Revolution (sometimes called the Second Agricultural Revolution) created more food while at
the same time making food production more efficient and less labor-intensive. Two significant
contributors were Charles Townsend who urged farmers to grow turnips which rejuvenated exhausted
soil and earned him the name of Turnip Townsend. Robert Blackwell bred stronger horses and fatter
sheep and cattle. Jethro Tull invented a mechanical seed drill which deposited seed in rows instead of
wasting seed by scattering. The Enclosure Movement meant that small farmers lost their jobs and fewer
laborers were needed. The result was that these small farmers who lost their farms were forced into
cottage industry but - as the number of factories multiplied - into urban areas where their labor could be
used in factories.
5. Great Britain had not been physically damaged by the Napoleonic wars. Moreover England was
crisscrossed with navigable rivers and canal networks which facilitated the transportation and
distribution of goods. In time, they would be replaced by railroads, but in the early phases of the
revolution, they played a crucial role.
6. Great Britain was led by liberal governments which by definition were not afraid of change and gave
their blessing on individual initiative and protected the interests of early industrialists. The colonial
expansion of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially in India and North America, stimulated
the development of international trade, the creation of financial markets and accumulation of capital.
7. London was already home to sophisticated banking and financial institutions which provided capital
($$$) for investment in new ventures. Moreover, England was no stranger to the Joint Stock
Corporation, which allowed greater investment while limiting individual risk.
II - The Cotton Revolution
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During the 17 century the English consumer had become fond of calicoes, which were inexpensive,
brightly printed cotton textiles imported from India. Cotton cloth had come into great demand because it
was lighter, more comfortable, easier to wash, and quicker to dry than traditional wool, which was the
principal fabric of European clothing before the nineteenth century. Threatened by the growing popularity
of cotton products, British wool producers persuaded Parliament to pass a series of laws to protect the
domestic wool industry. These Calico Acts of 1701 and 1721 prohibited the importation of printed cotton
cloth and restricted the sale of calicoes in England. (Parliament even passed a law requiring corpses to be
buried in woolen shrouds).
But consumers still demanded cotton and this demand created the British textile industry. To increase
production, cotton producers turned to inventions that rapidly mechanized the textile industry. The first
important technological breakthrough came in 1733 when a Manchester mechanic John Kay invented the
Flying Shuttle, which made weaving cloth more efficient. In 1764 James Hargreaves invented the
Spinning Jenney which was a multi spool weaving machine. These devices speeded up the weaving
process and stimulated demand for thread. It is important to understand that the thread required could come
from many sources including linen and cotton.
Then, in 1779 Samuel Crompton invented “the mule” which was adapted to steam power in 1790. The
mule could turn out higher quality thread at a speed 100 times faster speed than any worker with a spinning
wheel. Now, high quality thread was being produced faster than weavers could make the thread (weave the
thread) into cloth. So in 1785 Edmund Cartwright, a clergyman without technical training invented a
power loom that greatly speeded up the weaving process.
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Kay, Hargreaves, Crompton, Cartwright and many others were inventors, but the entrepreneurial genius was
Richard Arkwright who encouraged the inventors, patented their ideas and financed their projects. But
most importantly he created the cotton mill which brought the production processes together in a factory,
and he developed the use of power – first horse power, then water power and finally steam power – which
made cotton manufacture a mechanized industry. By the 1820s these mechanical looms in their factories had
displaced thousands of weavers. A young boy working on two power looms could produce fifteen times
more cloth than the fastest hand weaver. Moreover the lost jobs were quickly replaced as this new industry
created even more jobs than had been lost. By 1830, half a million people worked in the English cotton
industry, which accounted for 40% of England’s work force.
IIa - The Iron and Steel Revolution
Iron and steel were not new products, but the industry was transformed by the inventions of the Industrial
Revolution and the result was higher quantities of high quality iron and steel. The key to this
transformation was Coke. We saw how the Chinese used Coke to make steel and we learned that Coke is
bituminous (soft) coal which is baked in ovens to force out the volatile gasses. Coke then burns very hot and
without smoke. Before Coke was invented the only way to melt iron ore was to use charcoal which was very
expensive because huge numbers of trees had to be cut down. Thus, Coke was ideal because it was cheaper
and burned hotter.
In 1709 an Iron smelter, Abraham Darby, used coke to create the Blast Furnace which dramatically
lowered the price of iron making. In 1784, Henry Cort introduced a new puddling process which allowed
more impurities to be removed from the molten iron this making a stronger product.
IIb - The Steam Revolution
Steam power is perhaps the most familiar of all the Industrial Revolution’s technologies. Steam power
replaced horse and water power as the primary means of mechanical generation. In 1765, James Watt, an
instrument maker at the University of Glasgow, invented the first all purpose steam engine, which burned
coal to boil water, create steam and force a piston to turn a wheel, whose rotary (circular) motion was
converted into mechanical power – and was soon adapted to drive a large and increasing number of
mechanical devices. One of his first applications was to use steam-powered pumps to suck dangerous
ground water out of coal mines. Watt’s contemporaries used the word “horsepower” to measure the energy
generated by a steam engine, since these steam engines did the work once done by horses.
IIc - The Transportation Revolution
Some entrepreneurs saw the need for faster and more efficient methods of transportation, first for goods and
then for people themselves. Some entrepreneurs built or invested in private roads or turnpikes, which were
private roads and they charged a toll or a fee for people to use them. Others built canals to connect
navigable rivers. At first these canals moved barges pulled by men or horses from the bank. This led to the
Great Canal Boom in the late 1700s and early 1800s when canals were built to connect navigable rivers and
lakes, like the Great Lakes in North America. Then in 1807, James Watt’s steam engine was applied to
transportation technology, when Robert Fulton of New York built the first commercially successful
steamboat, the Clermont, which traveled between New York and Albany on the Hudson River.
Nevertheless, because of the weight and fuel demands of the early steam engines, sail powered sailing ships
remained the norm on the oceans. In fact the years1800 to1850 were called the golden age of the clipper
ships.
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Then, in 1815 George Stephenson, a self-educated engineer and inventor, invented a high-pressure steam
engine and put it into a locomotive. Fourteen years later, in 1829, his steam locomotive, the Rocket, won a
contest by reaching an astonishing 28 miles per hour (45 kph). Even though it was lighter and more efficient
than Watt’s engine, Stephenson’s steam engine was still too heavy for many ship applications. But by 1850
steam engine technology and lighter, more fuel efficient caught up with and eclipsed the clipper ships in
trans-oceanic travel.
The bottom line was that – as the Industrial Revolution produced better steam engines - trains and
steamships could carry far more cargo than horses or sailing ships and that drastically reduced transportation
costs. Transportation networks began link mines with industrial centers and industrialized nations with one
other.
The first English Railway, the Stockton and Darlington, opened in 1825. Between 1830 and 1870 the
British laid 13,000 miles of railroad track which linked industrial centers to coal fields, iron deposits and
port cities. That in turn caused another revolution as people began to ride the railroad and by the middle of
the nineteenth century millions were riding the rails annually. Belgium, France and Germany also began
railroad building in the 1830s.
III - The Factory System
During the Industrial Revolution the Factory System replaced the Putting-out System. In the late 18th
century the British Textile Industry used newly invented machines that where too large and expensive for
home use and put them in factories. This factory system centralized production and brought raw materials,
machines and workers together into one location. The nature of work now changed dramatically as workers
became more specialized and more efficient.
Workers became wage-earning laborers who serviced machines. Individual skills were sacrificed and a
whole new world was created: time clocks, noisy machinery, shop rules and rhythms of work more rigid
than the leisurely pace of cottage industry. Symbolically, the factory whistle replaced the village church
bell. Work patterns became monotonous and in many cases dangerous as the workplace safety rules we take
for granted were a century and a half away. Moreover, in this new world, workers faced strict and
immediate supervision, which made no allowance for a quick nap or socializing with friends. Workers men, women and children - were often physically punished when they did not work as fast or as accurately
as managers felt they should. Exploited workers soon began to fight back.
As early as 1811 and 1816 bands of English hand craftsmen known as Luddites went on a rampage and
destroyed textile machines which they blamed for their low wages and unemployment. They called their
leader King Lud, after a legendary boy named Ludham who broke a knitting frame to spite his father. The
movement soon spread to the hosiery and lace industries around Nottingham and then spread to the wool
and cotton mills of Lancashire. The government sided with employers and hanged several Luddites before
the movement gradually died out.
IV – The Acceleration of the Industrial Revolution
The first phase of the Industrial Revolution centered on textiles, iron and steel production and the steam
engine. Around 1850, accelerated innovation and efficiency changed whole nations and ushered in such
modern marvels as dynamite, electric power, incandescent lights, the internal combustion engine, the
automobile, the airplane, the camera, the phonograph, wireless communication and much, much more.
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A good example of this acceleration took place in 1856 when Henry Bessemer built an efficient blast
furnace known as the Bessemer Converter, which made steel production cheaper and more efficient. By
end of the nineteenth century the industry had become so efficient that steel (which was stronger and more
resilient than iron) could be produced in greater quantities than iron. The result was another revolution as
machinery and tools became better and cheaper than ever before: higher, stronger and taller buildings
(the first skyscrapers), better and larger ships, bridges and locomotives, more powerful engines and
machines; not to mention higher quality nuts and bolts, rails, fittings, pipes, hand tools and other
implements.
During phase two of the Industrial Revolution, electricity replaced steam power. Electricity had been
known in the Ancient World. Thales of Miletus made a series of observations on static electricity around
600 BCE but the study of electricity remained mostly a curiosity until the Enlightenment. American
schoolchildren learn that Benjamin Franklin attached a metal key to the bottom of a kite string and
observed a succession of sparks jumping from the key to the back of his hand. Electricity was finally
harnessed however, when Alessandro Volta developed the first modern battery in 1800. In 1821, Michael
Faraday created the first electric motor (which is turned by electric current) and the first dynamo (which
creates electric current). In the 1870s, Thomas Alva Edison used electricity in his remarkable invention the
incandescent light, or the light bulb. By the 1890s whole cities were illuminated by this new invention.
Advances in chemistry saw the development of hundreds of new products from aspirin and other medicines
to typewriters to dynamite invented in 1866 by the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel. In 1870, the French
chemist Louis Pasteur proved the germ theory when he linked the presence of bacteria to certain diseases.
He also discovered a process called pasteurization, in which raw milk is heated just enough to kill harmful
bacteria, but do no harm the quality of the milk. In the 1880s, a German doctor, Robert Koch, identified the
bacterium that caused Tuberculosis, even though it took fifty years to find a cure.
In the nineteenth century, hospitals were dangerous places. Many times a person would survive surgery, but
die a few days later from infection. In 1867, Joseph Lister discovered how antiseptics prevent infections
and demanded that doctors wash their hands before surgery and use sterilized instruments. All this led to
cleaner, more humane hospitals. Among the greatest proponents of better hygiene was Florence
Nightingale (a nurse made famous by her care of soldiers during the Crimean War) whose famous dictum was,
“The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.”
In 1854, Nikolas Otto patented a gasoline powered internal-combustion engine and in 1866 Karl Benz built
the first automobile. In 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright flew the first airplane. Communications were
also transformed. In the 1830s, Samuel F. B Morse invented the telegraph which could send electrical
messages over wires and by the 1860s undersea cables were sending telegraph messages across the Atlantic
Ocean. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and in 1901 Gugielmo Marconi invented
the radio which would become the basis for our modern communication systems, especially the modern and
ubiquitous cells phone.
V - The Spread of Industrialization
Also after 1850, Industrialization began to spread rapidly to Western Europe and the United States. The
French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars had helped this process by abolishing internal trade barriers,
dismantling the old mediaeval guilds, which opposed technology and restricted the movement of workers.
The earliest continental European country to industrialize was Belgium where coal, iron, textile, glass and
armaments industries flourished. By 1830, France had established the iron and steel industries followed by
rapid railroad expansion.
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German industry grew more slowly mostly due to political instability brought about by lack of political
unity. But after the 1840s and 50s, German coal and iron production soared, and railroads caught up to and
surpassed those of France and Britain as Germany rapidly industrialized. Bismarck encouraged heavy
industry (especially in the coal and iron ore rich Ruhr Valley in Germany) and the formation of huge businesses,
like the Krupp firm, which dominated mining, metallurgy, armaments production and shipbuilding.
Immigration to United States was a major factor that helped to change an agrarian country into the largest
industrial country in the world by the end of the 19th century. American industrialization began in New
England with the growth of the cotton textile industry, followed by the growth of the shoe, tool, furniture
and handgun industries. The northern states industrialized to such a point that on the eve of the Civil War
80% of all industry was located in northern states and their output was crucial in the Northern victory in the
Civil War. After the Civil War the small American heavy iron and steel industries mushroomed in areas like
western Pennsylvania and central Alabama where there were abundant supplies of iron ore and coal. The
latter half of the 19th century also saw dramatic American expansion in railroad growth, which moved
people, grains and other foods as well as raw materials and finished goods with amazing speed and
efficiency. By 1900, America was the world’s undisputed economic powerhouse.
VI - Continued Improvements
a - Efficiency
After bringing together raw materials and workers, the next step was to increase efficiency (quality and
quantity) by mass-producing standardized articles. Eli Whitney (1765-1825) invented the Cotton Gin for
which he is most popularly known, but a much greater invention of his was his development of the use of
interchangeable parts in the making of firearms. In contrast to the old method where a skilled worker
fashioned a pistol or musket from start to finish, sanding woods to casting the barrel, forming and fitting
each unique part, Whitney designed machine tools with which unskilled workers made only a particular part
that fit every musket of the same model. Before long, entrepreneurs applied this principle to almost every
industry, from watches and sewing machines to clothing and furniture. By the middle of the 19th century,
mass production of standardized parts was the hallmark of industrial societies.
Henry Ford (1863-1947) improved mass production another step by his invention of the assembly line.
Instead of organizing production of an auto around a series of stations where teams of workers assembled
each individual car using standardized parts, Ford designed a conveyor system that carried components parts
to workers at an appropriate speed so that each worker could perform a specialized task at a fixed point on
the assembly line. Before Ford’s 1913 innovation it took over twelve hours to build one car; after the
assembly line, the same car took less than two hours to build. The result was that cars became so cheap that
the middle class could afford them and the age of the motorcar had arrived.
b - The Growth of Big Business
The concentration of capital, machinery, and production created the formation of large, privately owned
businesses. The British and French governments laid the foundations for Modern Corporation in the 1850s
and 60s. These corporations were owned by hundreds or thousands of individuals (corporate investors) who
financed them through the purchase of stocks or shares in the company. When the corporation made money,
the stockholders made money either in the form of dividends (cash payments) and/or an increase of the value
of their stocks. And when the corporation lost money, there were no dividends. If a corporation went
bankrupt, laws protected stockholders so that they would only loose their investment and no more. This
made the corporation extremely attractive to investors and led to the formation of monopolies, trusts and
cartels.
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c - Monopolies, Trusts and Cartels
A monopoly exists when a corporation becomes so strong it not only out competes its competition, it also
put them out of business so that a monopoly has no competition. Sometimes business alliances called trusts
were made to form monopolies. A cartel is a group of producers who create a monopoly by fixing prices,
limiting supply and eliminating competition.
Some monopolists try to gain control through vertical organization, which meant that they would gain
control of all facets of a single industry. The industrial empire of the American petroleum producer John D.
Rockefeller, for example, known as the Standard Oil Trust, controlled almost all oil drilling, processing,
refining, marketing and distribution in the United States. Thus Standard Oil could operate so efficiently that
it undersold all its competitors.
Other monopolists sought to gain control by means of horizontal organization, which meant that they
consolidated or cooperated with all the companies at the same level of production or marketing. These
actions brought about large cartels, which sought to ensure the prosperity of their companies by absorbing
competitors, fixing prices, regulating production or dividing up markets. The German firm I. G. Farben, the
world’s largest chemical corporation until the middle of the twentieth century, grew out of a complex
merger of chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturers that controlled as much as 90% of production in
chemical industries.
It is important to understand that by the beginning of the twentieth century, many countries began to
pass laws to break up such enterprises and limit their monopolistic practices. In the United States
presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt were the two best know trust busters.
d - Industrial Society
Industrialization created a revolutionary impact on society as it forced people to adjust to new patterns of
family and working life. We shall see, especially in emerging industrial societies, how the proletariat (or
the working class) did not initially benefit from the Industrial Revolution, but how, over time, both the
working and middle classes came more and more to share in the wealth and comforts brought by the
Industrial Revolution as nations worked to build more equitable and just societies.
Industrialization flooded markets with affordable manufactured goods. From May to October of 1851 in
Hyde Park, London, The Great Exhibition showcased the fruits of Industrial Revolution. This first World's
Fair, opened by Queen Victoria herself, was an enormous building - built of steel and glass - and designed
to hold many of the wonders of the Industrial Age.
e - How Industrialization raised the Standard of Living?
1. Variety of clothing. As strange as its sounds to us, even the relatively poor began to be able to own
several changes of clothing which also led to more comfortable clothing (i.e., clothing suited to climate
and light cotton underwear)
2. Food became cheaper; more available with much more variety. Canned were invented; and factories
kept turning out a plethora of foodstuffs as farming continued to be more efficient.
3. In the space a few decades, people began to make use of rapid, extensive and inexpensive transportation,
especially railroads.
4. Industrialization made slavery unprofitable and with few exceptions helped to bring on its demise.
5. Even working people could now afford previously unobtainable luxuries: furniture, cabinets, porcelain,
and decorative objects that were unimaginable purchases 100 years earlier.
6. Advances in medicine and surgery caused a dramatically increased lifespan and caused a population
boom in Euro-American societies:
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Europe
North America and South America
Argentina
North America
Great Britain
Germany
1700
1800
1900
105 million
13 million
180 million
24 million
300,000
6 million
10.5 million
18 million
390 million
145 million
4.75 million
76 million
37.5 million
43 million
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However, it is important to note an important demographic transition: as families in industrialized nations
moved from farms to the cities, children were no longer an economic necessity and so voluntary birth
control paired with longer life spans led – over time - to both decreased fertility (i.e., smaller families) and
demographic stability after centuries of population increases. Be sure to note, however, this does not happen
in non industrialized countries!
VII - Migration and Social Changes
As people moved from the countryside to the growing cities (a process called Urbanization), the population
and number of large cities mushroomed. By 1900 at least half of the Euro-American population lived in
cities and towns. In 1800 there were around twenty cities of 100,000 thousand in Europe and North
America; by 1900 the number had risen to more than 150. London was largest at 6.5 million followed by
New York 4.2, Paris 3.3 and Berlin 2.7.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, 50 million Europeans migrated to the Americas. In the early 19th
century the majority came from the British Isles but as the century continued immigrants came from
Germany, Scandinavia, France, and – by the end of the century – from Italy, eastern and southern Europe.
Migration often reflected difficult political, social and economic circumstances in Europe: the Revolutions
of 1830 and 1848, the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and Russian anti-Semitism of the 1890s.
Worker housing in large cities was usually substandard with poor construction, polluted air and inadequate
water supply. The poor lived in multistory apartment buildings called Tenements which had no running
water. Coal burning factories heaters and kitchen stoves caused terrible air pollution and disease - inside
homes and out. The streets were literally sewers rotting with garbage and sewage. As a result life spans were
short because of disease: consumption (or tuberculosis) was the biggest killer, followed by typhus (typhoid
fever) and cholera. Before 1900 there were NO laws to protect the poor and working classes from shoddy
construction and disease caused by lack of sanitation. By 1900, however, governments were making efforts
to improve living conditions and cities were beginning to construct parks, recreational facilities and seek
adequate and clean water supplies.
Industrialization transformed the social strata. Farmers decreased in numbers because the farming industry
grew more efficient. So displaced farmers migrated to the cities where they become the proletariat or
working class. But over time these proletariat (working poor) moved upward in society and joined the middle
class. Industrialization also produced a new class of aristocrat, the Captains of Industry or enterprising
businessmen who became wealthy and powerful.
Industrialization then changed the way people worked, earned a living and lived out their daily lives. The
basic building block of society continued to be the family, but families were radically transformed. Before
factories and offices and other kinds of workplaces, family members worked together at home or on the
farm for the welfare of the family group. The result was that families were often extended families.
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But after the Industrial Revolution, the family dynamic was reshaped by moving economic
production outside the home and creating a sharp distinction between working life and family life.
These changes were often gradual, as extended family economies persisted into the Industrial Revolution, as
fathers, mothers and children pooled their wages and sometimes even worked together in factories. Over
time, however, the extended family inexorably (with very few exceptions) broke down into nuclear families.
Middle class men became the Bread Winners and in many homes they no longer did chores which were
delegated with other menial tasks to women and children. In upper and middle class families men gained
enormous prestige in the family and the community. Many professionals (doctors, lawyers, various
bureaucrats and businessmen) adopted a strong work ethic even though they now had free time for shorter
working hours, relaxation and vacations. They also sought self-improvement, especially reading or
attending lectures. Moreover, they demanded the same work ethic of their factory employees. Such attitudes
resulted in a whole new ideal of respectability and morality which was reflected in churches, schools and
factories. Gambling, boxing matches, socializing at bars and staged dog or cock fights were outlawed by the
rising respectability of the middle class. Lower class workers who could not afford middle class lifestyles
often resented the hypocrisy of such attitudes and many adopted Holy Monday ideals (starting the work
week on Tuesday) and fought for social equality with the more well to do.
Like men in pre-industrial times women worked long hours. Agricultural and Cottage industries demanded
as much. But within the context of working in the home, it was easy for women to adopt the dual role of
coworker with her husband and mother to her children. When women were forced to move into the factory
or office, however, the family dynamic changed. In the early years of the Industrial Revolution, women
often worked in factories but by the late 19th century Middle Class Morality expected that women stay at
home. Poor women had no choice; they had to work to survive. Single middle class women sometimes
worked in limited professions such as school teaching; married women did not.
Thus middle class women were often confined to the home and poor women often worked terrible hours
before returning home to tend to domestic family needs. In her book Woman in Her Social and domestic
Character, written in 1833, Mrs. John Stanford promoted the idea of the woman dependent on her man
who knows how to be the weaker vessel, whose chief object in life was to make a happy place for her
husband and children. Poor women had no such luxury and the plight of poor women was increased by
middle class attitudes which created a demand for domestic servants, maids and cooks.
Early Industrialization also brought a terrible evil in Child Labor. Children had worked with their families in
pre-industrial times but that was in the context of the family. In the early days of industrialization children
were taken away from home and parents to work long hours in factories, with few breaks. They were often
exploited and even physically mistreated. The tragedy was that the poor were so poor that they often could
not survive without their children working. By 1840s the British government began the campaign to end the
evils of child labor.
VIII - Responses to Laissez-Faire Economics
Until the Industrial Revolution there were three social classes: the aristocracy who controlled an agrarian
society; a small middle class of merchants, artisans and tradesmen who grew in numbers and prominence
with the expansion of capitalist society and peasants who formed most of the population. During the
Industrial Revolution the middle class not only continued to increase in numbers, but also in types of
occupations and wealth. As they grew in wealth, they grew in prominence and sometimes even intermarried
with the aristocracy as upward and downward mobility became more fluid. In countries like England and
Holland, we have seen how the growing middle class gained a larger and larger share of the government by
increasing their representation in assemblies and parliaments.
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This new Industrial Middle Class was called the Bourgeoisie. In origin the Bourgeoisie were the
merchants and artisans of the Middle-Ages, whose status or power came from employment, education, and
wealth, as opposed to the aristocratic birth. During the Industrial Revolution their ranks grew as they
became the entrepreneurs who developed and exploited new technologies so that they came to own the
primary means of producing wealth in society. Politically, modern history can be defined by their gradually
replacing the aristocracy as the ruling class. They were the backbone of the Glorious and American
Revolutions and generally supported the French Revolution. They destroyed Feudalism and ushered
in modern Capitalism. And their faults (i.e., only a few had any sympathy for the poor) made them many
enemies, especially Socialists and Marxists.
We have seen that in his book, The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith argued that the free market with its
natural forces of supply and demand should be allowed to operate and regulate business. Smith was a strong
supporter of Laissez Faire, or the idea that the marketplace was better off without any government
regulation. But at the same time, he argued that government had a duty to protect society, administer justice
and provide public works. To many people this vision of Capitalism had technologically improved society
and given wealth to many, but there were still problems.
In 1798, an Anglican clergyman and scholar, Thomas Malthus, in his treatise, An Essay on the Principle
of Population, who doubted the ability of society to improve materially by pointing that all through history
there had always been a percentage of the population that were poor and that this was because population
growth always led to overpopulation and outstripping food sources. So it was that population was kept in
check by wars, disease and famine. In other words: more food equaled more people, but if the food
supply could not catch up, population decreased. Thus the Industrial Revolution by increasing the food
supply would NOT solve the problem.
Equally pessimistic were the conclusions of the British economist and Member of Parliament David
Ricardo who, in his Iron Law of Wages pointed out that wage increases were useless because working
class families would use the increased wages to have more children instead of raising their standard of
living. Both Ricardo and Malthus opposed any government assistance for the poor not just because such aid
violated free market principles, but also because such aid took away incentive for the poor to better
themselves through hard work, thrift (money management) and limiting the size of their families.
But there were individuals who sought to ameliorate the plight of the working poor and force capitalist
governments to modify Laissez-Faire principles. After 1800, the British economist and social reformer,
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) advocated Utilitarianism or the idea that the goal of society should be to
create the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. He argued for individual freedom,
separation of church and state, equal rights for women, the right to divorce and the end of slavery.
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was strongly influenced by the ideas of Bentham and he too strongly believed
in individual freedom but - even more than Bentham - wanted the government to ameliorate (make better)
the lives of working poor. He wrote, “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over
any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” By that he meant that
although Bourgeoisie entrepreneurs were entitled to increase their own happiness, the government was
obligated to make sure that they did no harm to their workers in the process. In his work On Authority, Mill
advocated individual and economic freedom for every individual living in a state and warned about the
Tyranny of the Majority in which “majority interests” - even in a democracy or a republic - could take
away the rights of other human beings. Mill defined social liberty as protection from the tyranny of political
rulers as he called for freedom to pursue economic and intellectual interests and advocated universal
suffrage even for women.
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One of the strongest responses to Capitalism and Laissez-Faire Economics was Socialism, which arose in
the first part of the 19th century when many individuals came to the conclusion that the economic system
was incredibly unfair to the average worker. They questioned whether the aristocracy or captains of industry
had the right to be in control of so much power over so many people and so they became vociferous critics
of the Industrialist system and they tirelessly worked to alleviate the social and economic evils caused by
capitalism and industrialization. There were three kinds of Socialists: Utopian, Revolutionary and
Evolutionary.
a - Utopian Socialism
The earliest socialists were Utopian socialists. The two most famous were Charles Fourier (1772-1837) and
Robert Owen (1771-1858) who both shared a utopian idea that they could create ideal communities that
would point the way to an equitable society. Fourier, a salesman, planned model communities held together
by love rather than force in which everyone performed work in accordance with personal temperament and
inclination. Of course, Fourier’s idea failed because it wasn’t practical; people needed some stimulus.
Owen, on the other hand, was a successful businessman, who purchased and transformed a decrepit Scottish
mill town called New Lanark into a model industrial community. Owen raised wages, cut working hours,
kept young children out of the factory while sending them to school and operated a store that sold goods at
fair prices – and his reforms actually made money. Although most captains of industry refused to adopt
his reforms, Owen nevertheless showed the world that cooperative control of industry (and educating children
instead of exploiting them) was necessary to bring about a just and equitable society – and it could be
profitable.
b – Revolutionary Socialism
More radical were the German socialists Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895). They
scorned the Utopian Socialists as unrealistic venturers that offered no real solution in a brutal world. Marx
and Engels believed in Scientific Socialism which taught that the social inequities of the nineteenth century
were inevitable results of a capitalist economy. They held that capitalism divided people into two classes:
the Haves and Have-nots. The Haves were the capitalists (The Industrial Class Bourgeoisie) who owned
industrial machinery and factories and the Have-nots were the Proletariat, who were the wageworkers who
had only their labor to sell. They taught that the intense competition engendered by capitalism led to ruthless
exploitation of the working class.
Even culture as expressed in art, education and music benefited the capitalists and hurt the workers because
they diverted workers from their misery. Marx was also highly critical of religion and called religion the
Opiate of the Masses because it encouraged people to focus on a hypothetical future life instead of
correcting to injustices of this life.
Marx wrote two works: In 1848 he wrote the Manifesto of the Communist Party (sometimes called The
Communist Manifesto) in which he asserted that all human history had been a struggle between social
classes and that the future lay with the working class because the laws of history dictated that capitalism
would inexorably grind to a halt. In 1867, He published Das Kapital which was a condemnation of the
capitalist system and in which he utters his hallmark exhortation, Workers of the world, unite! Marx and
Engels believed that a socialist revolution would result in a Dictatorship of the Proletariat, which would
abolish private property and destroy the capitalist order. After the revolution, the state would wither away,
coercive institutions would disappear and a fair, just and egalitarian society would arise. The doctrines of
Marx and Engels would dominate European and international socialist thought and ideas throughout the
nineteenth century – and are still alive and well today!
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c - Evolutionary Socialism
Whereas Marx and Engels believed that only revolution could save the proletariat, not all socialists agreed
with the inevitability of the revolution. So Many trade unionists, educational associations and newspapers
adopted Evolutionary Socialism, which placed hope in representative governments and called for the
election of legislators who supported socialist reforms.
And so it was that as the nineteenth century progressed, socialist agitation eventually persuaded many
governments of industrialized nations to act on Social reform by regulating working hours and working
conditions; and by providing medical insurance and social security pensions. The British government led the
way and passed the Factory Act of 1833, which regulated hours and working conditions, especially for
women and children. In the Mines Act of 1842, the British government prohibited underground (that means
under-the-ground) employment of women and boys under ten.
During the 1880s, in the newly united German Empire, Otto von Bismarck, proved to be the most
surprising Evolutionary Socialist, when he introduced medical insurance, unemployment compensation and
retirement pensions for German workers. Bismarck was not a proponent of Liberalism but, like Robert
Owen, he understood that secure workers make more productive workers and his reforms greatly increased
German industrial output.
As the 19th century passed, Trade Unions began to be bolder and seek redress from employers and
governments for unjust business practices. At first, both employers and governments considered trade
unions illegal organizations (Remember the Luddites who were hung). Although strikes often occasioned
violence, Trade Unions over time did not destroy capitalism, but made employers and governments
more responsive to workers’ needs and interests. In the long run, wherever they played a role in
lessening tension between workers and capitalists, they actually prevented violence and revolutions, but in
countries where they did not, as in Imperial Russia, violence was not avoided.
IX - Global Effects of Industrialization
Early industrialization was a Euro-American affair, but by 1870 both Russia and Japan were in a process of
rapid industrialization. In both these countries government authorities sponsored industrialization primarily
to strengthen themselves again the military and economic pressures from competing Euro-American
nations. Russia could not catch up in time; Japan caught up dramatically!
a - Industrialization in Russia.
At first, the Tsarist government promoted industrialization by encouraging constructions of railroads in
order to link Russia’s vast empire, but industrial growth in Russia mushroomed under Count Sergei Witte
who was finance minister from 1892-1903. Witte was neither a liberal nor a conservative but was
determined to make Russia a fully industrialized nation.
Witte oversaw the construction of famous the trans-Siberian Railway and he worked tirelessly to push
Russian industrialization by reforming commercial law, protecting infant industries, supporting steamship
companies and promoting nautical and engineering schools. He invited foreign investors to bring their
capital and expertise to Russia, and he encouraged the establishment of savings banks to raise additional
investment funds in Russia itself. By 1900, Russia still faced serious social problems, but - thanks to Witte produced half the world’s oil and ranked fourth in world steel production, lagging behind the United States,
Germany and Great Britain.
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b - Industrialization in Japan
After Japan determined that it would modernize in the 1860s, they engaged in perhaps the most remarkable
industrializing effort in world history. The Japanese were determined to gain parity (equality) with EuroAmerican powers. As in Russia, Japan hired thousands of foreign experts to instruct Japanese workers and
managers in the techniques of modern industry. Japan sent students overseas to study engineering and
technology. The government boldly took the initiative by building iron foundries, dockyards and
universities. They established new businesses, opening schools and universities specializing in scientific and
technical industries, constructing railroads and building mines, a banking system, silk and cotton textile
industries, chemical and glass industries. When these businesses were able to operate on their own, the
government sold them to private entrepreneurs who often built huge industrial empires known as Zaibastu
(wealthy cliques). By 1900, Japan had become the most industrialized land on the Asian continent.
c- Economic Dependency
Industrialization had profound consequences for the greater non Euro-American world, as Industrial
countries needed raw materials, minerals, agricultural products and sometimes laborers from distant parts of
the world. And so the industrialized nations searched the world to supply their factories and industries with
workers and raw materials, but often with unhappy consequences. Industrialized nations often set up feeder
industries like jute production in India, rubber production in Malaya or cotton production in Egypt. These
fledgling industrialization efforts were minimal and designed to serve the purposes of the Euro-American
Industrialists and so had little, long term positive impact in the lands where the products were produced.
Moreover some areas of the world, like Canada, were “all European” colonies designed to feed the
industries of the mother country. It is important to note, however, that Canada, like Australia and the South
American countries of Uruguay and Argentina continued to export primary goods, but at the same time
underwent economic development and industrialization.
But on the other hand, there were many more primary-goods exporting countries that did not industrialize
(most notably, most of Latin American, Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia). As a result these
countries often became exploited by industrialized countries as foreign investors in collusion with local
elites (remember the Creoles) controlled their minerals, agriculture and plantations. This let to the economic
phenomenon of Economic Dependency whereby the economic vitality (success) of the supplier nation was
dependent of the purchaser nation.
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