Industrial Revolution:
NOTE: "Revolution in Consequence rather than development"
Demographic Shifts:
1750 1800 1850
80 % rural 60% urban
Southern England Northern England
12 Banks (Egn.) 300 Banks (Eng.)
100 % pop. increase of England
1000% pop. increase of Manchester
Productivity of a single woman increased by 200X
5 million lbs of raw 588 million lbs of raw
cotton imported from NA cotton imported from NA
Coal production increased by 10 times
Iron production increased by 15 times
0 miles of Railroad in GB 7500 Miles
- The story of the IR is that of the replacement of animal / human labor with hydraulic and mineral energy
- Ingenuity rather than genius was the key
- Major innovators were people responding to problems with invention
- IR: a sustained period of economic growth, brought about by the application of mineral energy and technical innovations to the process of manufacturing between 1750 and 1850
- Britain first:
1. Water: access to oceans and internal waterways gave GB a transportation advantage
- Small standing army and large navy / shipping industry positioned them to take advantage of waterways
- Canal system supported by the Navigation Acts
Impact of transportation:
tied regions together more closely
lower price of commercial transportation drove more commercial activity
2. Economic infrastructure:
- Generations of colonization resulted in the cultivation of foreign markets for raw materials and sale of goods
- Shipping ability key to foreign market access
- Capital resources to invest in production
- Bank of England became a model to create a stable banking system
3. Minerals and metals
- Coal: one miner could produce the energy of 20 horses
- Capital industry, dominated by the wealthy
- conditions were BAD (pg. 682)
- Thomas Newcomen began use of steam powered engine to pump water
- Demand for coal skyrocketed when it became essential to iron production
- Iron:
- Coke (pure form coal) used to smelt iron (pig iron – raw, with impurities)
- Henry Cort: “puddling and rolling” of iron lowered the cost of production and increased the quality
- cannoning
“Cotton is King”
Replaced wool as the key textile
As population rose (agricultural revolution) demand increased, cottage industry could not keep pace with demand (esp. in harvest season)
- To increase production John Kay invented the Flying Shuttle, which decreased the amount of time to weave
- Problem: not enough thread to weave
- To increase production of thread John Hargraves to develop the Jenny
- Problem: Jenny produced weak thread
- To produce higher strength thread Robert Awkwright developed the water frame
- Samual Cromptom developed the “Mule”, which combined the work of the water frame and the Jenny
Impact: innovations led to the develop of the factory as center of production
First cotton factory was built by Robert Awkwright in Cromptom
Advantages (reasons for) factories:
Needed the space to house the increasingly large machinery
Needed to house and protect expensive machinery
Usually required water power
Secrecy – “safe-boxes” were the first factories
Keep the machines in constant use
Supervise work force
Ensure quality of product
Prevent embezzlement
Impact of the Factory:
Changed the nature of work
Changed the physical location (home / regional) of work
Machinery reversed existing gender roles in production (men became weavers)
Increased the demands on commercial transportation (raw material + finish goods)
The Iron Horse (railroads)
- As the IR focused on productive capacities the supply of raw materials became an increasing problem (coal and cotton)
- Transportation was a major problem (canal system became encumbered with the typical problems of any monopolistic system)
- Transportation became a key to creating economies of scale
Railroads:
- Richard Trevithick: attempted to apply Watt’s steam engine to carriages, limited success
- George Stevenson: innovated steam locomotion with regards to traction and pressure
- Considered the father of the modern railroad
- Developed the “Rocket”, could haul three times its weight at 30 mph
The First Railroads
- 1830 Manchester to Liverpool was opened
- Designed to move commercial goods, quickly caught on as a mode of human transportation
- Funding: private bills passed parliament allowing entrepreneurs to raise monies through selling joint stock
- Massing investment: paid high returns
- Impacts:
1. Decreased the price of coal (think of the impact of half priced oil!!!)
2. Increased the demand for iron and steel (massive industrial growth)
3. Railroads were massive consumers of building materials and labor
4. Leading employer
5. Created a new concept of time, space and speed
- Railroad time (standardization)
- shrank the size of the country
- Increased the rate (speed) trade could be conducted
6. Increased personal travel
- Safer
- Travel for pleasure began, in 1851 6 million people travel to London to view the Crystal Palace exhibition
7. Helped create a sense of nationalism as individuals worldview (travel and trade) expanded beyond their region
Entrepreneurs and Managers
- innovation was constant – everyone was trying to innovate
Industrialists:
- successful industrialists accomplished “economies of scale” (increased output resulting in decreasing unit cost)
- Measured profit in fractions of cents
Entrepreneur – raised capital, understand production techniques and market their goods
Manager – organization, tried to maximize output from mechanized and human capital
- Attempted to increase output
1. Specialization
2. Had to educate the work force
3. Taught work ethic
4. Standards of quality
5. Thwart embezzlement
Josiah Wedgwood | Robert Owen |
- innovated – made a better product - introduced specialization into the manufacturing process - standardization of quality - marketing genius: sold to leading aristocratic families and then marketed “replicas” | - rose to the position of manager by the age of 19 - strove to increased the quality of workers lives to increase production - created higher quality of life in company town - limited child labor, improved schools - “paternalistic socialism” |
- Owen and others began to agitate for reform in response to increasingly harsh industrial conditions
Reforms:
The Factory Act of 1833: prohibited child labor under 9, provided two hours of daily education, created the 12 hour workday
- The Ten Hours Act of 1847: set the ten hour work day
- The Mines Act 1842: prohibited women and children from working underground
Edwin Chadwick, Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Laboring Population in Britain (1842)
Painted a horrible picture of daily life
Key factor in shifting social reform to the role of government (welfare state)
The Public Health Act of 1848: established boards of health and medical examiners office
- Vaccination Act of 1853 and the Contagious Diseases Act of 1864: attempted to control epidemics in urban areas
Urbanization:
Push / pull factors led to the rise of cities
Rise of urban population (migration) and lower marriage ages + higher birth rates in families
Industrialization on the Continent:
1851 The Crystal Palace exhibition in London served as a model of industrial possibility for all of Europe
- demonstrated the “British miracle” of industrialization
Much of the continent was able to steal British innovation despite protective attempts by the government
Accelerated the process of industrialization on the continent
British competitive advantage forced continental govts. To become more involved in the development of industry
France:
Industrialization keyed to domestic market (avoid competition with the British), but slowed by two factors:
Slow population growth: less population pressure meant that France could continue to embrace traditional agricultural techniques
French Revolution:
Napoleon’s Continental System failed and destroyed French foreign markets
Politics of the revolution strengthened peasant right’s to land, preventing enclosure and the agricultural revolution
Destruction of guild system in manufacturing
Economy remained largely regional
Stages of Progress:
- French challenges were developing effective transportation and raising capital
- Govt. stepped in to lead the development of railway system, ironworks and coalmines
- Railways drove French industrialization
- French industrialize at a slower rate and focused more on quality goods, rather than mass produced goods (Britain)
Germany
- Political division stood in the way of industrialization (300 states prior to 1815, 30 states after 1815)
Germany was an agriculturally rich and diverse land, west – free farmers, east - serfdom
Linens and metal goods were traditional products, could not compete with British goods
- Had to protect and develop domestic markets and resources
Zollverein: German customs union created to promote effective trade and industrial development (agreed upon taxes and shared profits while protecting domestic industry)
Prussian led, froze rival Austria-Hungary out
Helped Prussian industry move goods across northern Germany and promoted the integration of the Rhineland (industrial heart of Germany)
Precursor to German political unification?
Intro. Of RR dropped the costs of industrial goods (achieved economies of scale)
- Germans became known for high quality metal goods
Dissent:
- Friedrich Engels: went to England to learn about industrialization, worked in a Manchester cotton mill
- Wrote: The Condition of the Working Class in England 1845
- Condemned working and living conditions
The lands that Time Forgot:
- Rest of Europe developed “pockets” of industrialization, but failed to reach economies of scale and largely remained pre-industrial societies.
Why?
- Regional problems:
- poor resources – Naples / Poland
- poor transportation – Spain / Austria-Hungary
- Common problems:
- agricultural structure perpetuated impoverished peasantry (sharecropping / serfdom)
- prevented a surplus labor force from forming
- Tariffs protected traditional economies, stifled innovation
Long Term Results:
1. Became exporters of raw materials and consumers of finished goods
2. Dual system: Areas where traditional economy and industrialization existed side by side
- Prevented industrialization from reaching economies of scale and farmers from developing enough wealth to access industrial goods
