THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

7/29/2019 THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

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THE CAUSES AND

EFFECTS OF THE

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Dino Memovic

02-May-12


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THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONDino Memovic

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Introduction _________________________________________________________________ 11. Pre industrial conditions (Williams-Ellis & Fisher, 1947) __________________________ 12. Causes of Industrial Revolution (Williams-Ellis & Fisher, 1947) _____________________ 33.

The Bourgeoisie (Smith, 1998) (Carl, 1867) _____________________________________ 4

4. The Proletariat (Carl, 1867) (Williams-Ellis & Fisher, 1947) ________________________ 5Conclusion ___________________________________________________________________ 7Works Cited _________________________________________________________________ 8

Introduction

The Industrial Revolution is a period of immense economic growth. By Industrial

Revolution we consider time period from XVII to XX Century in Great Britain, France and

Netherlands. This turbulent period changed countries and people. Development of modern

democratic society is a direct consequence of The Industrial Revolution. This essay will attempt

to note and explain some major causes and effects of The Industrial Revolution.

1. Pre industrial conditions (Williams-Ellis & Fisher, 1947)

For start lets consider the conditions of pre-industrial Britain. First well consider the feudal

system that at the time was dominant in Britain and most of Europe. Next well look into

merchants as early freeman, as well as the organizational structures of guilds and manufactures.

The organization of government in XVI Century was mostly the same as it was in

medieval times. Power depended on the amount of land one owns. Although towns started to


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gain importance most of the population still lived, or better to say served as serfs on feudal

estates. These estates were self-sufficient witch meant that they produced almost everything that

was needed on the estate. But slowly over centuries the class of merchants slowly gained wealth.

At this time the cities formed on important crossroads. In these cities traders and

craftsmen of same trade organized into guilds. Guilds were formed to ensure the monopoly on

the local market for its members. The guilds were wary closed and required apprenticeship of 10

or more years for accepting new members, also they prevented craftsmen of same trade that were

not the members of the guild to work in the guilds area. Also as towns became more important,

serfs started escaping from feudal estates into towns. In these towns people started to develop

more liberal ideas, because education and educated people were more accessible.

In The Pre-industrial Period one important production process was developed, the

concept of manufacture. Manufacture is a form of labor organization where the production

process is broken into its simplest components. Each component is then assigned to a single

worker. This way one worker does only one part of the whole production process. Because of

repetitive action this type of production requires less skilled workers and in the same time it

doubles if not quartiles the daily production.

This is all on the Pre-industrial Britain. So people lived mostly as serfs on feudal estates,

and if not lived as freeman in towns. Guilds were controlling all the trade in towns, and everyone

lived the same as their grandfathers. But one invention was about to change everything.


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2. Causes of Industrial Revolution (Williams-Ellis & Fisher, 1947)

From all causes of The Industrial Revolution there were some that were so revolutionary that

they changed the whole cause of history. From these innovations the most important are: the

spinning mule in textile industry, the steam engine, and improvements in metallurgy.

First big innovation was in the textile industry. This mechanical device, that still

dominates modern textile industry, is called the spining mule. Instead of workers putting each

horizontal string of rope trough each vertical rope in a cloth, now they just turned the weal

around and the ting did it on its own. Initially it made the textile industry workers wary wealthy,

only to bring them to worst of poverty, but this is to be evaluated in later chapters of this essay.

Second by importance was the advancement in metallurgy, especially iron and steel

industry. New techniques made possible to make steel of higher quality. Also to support the

ever-growing demands mining industry increased. Canals were built to transport coal and ore

from mines to industrial centers where it was processed. But these innovations were noting

compared to the machine that is sole to blame for The Industrial Revolution.

This device was called the steam engine. First useful steam engine was made by Tomas

Slavery at the end of XVII Century. But it wasnt until James Watt improvements in the 3rd

quoter of XVIII Century that steam engines operating cost was low enough for it to see mass

implantation. The steam engine was a device that converted heat from fuel to useful mechanical

energy. Steam engine in the XVII and XVIII Century was used to propel literary all moving parts

in all industries. One steam engine could for instance replace all labor force required to raise to

drop a steel pres. Unlike manufactures of earlier period steam engine operated factories required


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only feeders and machine operators to function. This meant that operating costs of a factory are

significantly dropped with each new invention.

These changes in industry gave birth to a completely new class, while bringing ruin to

some of already existing ones. Also the increased growth of production power allowed Britain to

start acquiring its immense colonial empire, soli for getting required resources and having new

markets to sell their goods at.

3. The Bourgeoisie (Smith, 1998) (Carl, 1867)

The new upper middle class gained immense power in this time period. Better known as the

capitalists, or those who posses means of production. The huge growth of this class also made a

completely new science of economy that explained the events in this new world of business.

Economy as a science tries to find the most efficient way for allocation and implication

of capital. The founder of modern economics is Adam Smith. Important for this era of innovation

is that each major improvement in production process allows the price of the product to drop.

And because the competition cannot follow afford the lower price; the person with lower price

gains a temporary monopole on the market. This brings him immense wealth while bankrupting

his competition. This completely random process of allocation of wealth meant that whole

system is vulnerable to periods of immense growth and terrible recession.

This growth/fall cycle was predicted by Karl Marx. Big recessions were caused eider by

mistakes or will of the most powerful capitalists of the time. To further explain this, you have

money, if you make whole economy to go down, prices fall, you buy everything at fifth of the


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price, and when economy recovers you increase your wealth five times without doing anything.

Also most industries become of chance of a recession produce only by orders. So factories are

working at full capacity when big orders from colonies come, and have to hire extra workers just

to keep up to pace. And because of long time required for communications and goods to travel

from colonies to Britain (2-3 or more months) these factories are almost idle because there are no

orders. Of course when there is no work to be done you fire excess labor force. And the cycle

repeats every so often.

So the spotlight of wealth went from feudal lords to capitalists. Greed made capitalists

ether highly successful or reduced them to poverty. But people already rich or getting richer were

not doing it on their own. There was another class, the one from witch the rich squeezed the

money from.

4. The Proletariat (Carl, 1867) (Williams-Ellis & Fisher, 1947)

The working class at the beginning of the industrial age, especially in textile industry got

wealthy. Employers had more money so they could afford to pay workers more. At this time the

demand for labor was greater than available work force. Most of the future workers still lived as

serfs on feudal estates. This state couldnt last forever; soon workers were exploited until they

became conscious of their power.

Soon, with the promise of better life they were forced into industrial centers. Soon there

were excess workers that could only be employed in the times of immense growth. The large


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supply of desperate workers meant that employer could choose its own terms of employment.

And if laborer doesnt like it he is fired, there is always someone more desperate that will take

the job.

This sufficit of laborers lead to gruesome exploitation of the proletariat. Because of

simplicity of operating the steam engine-propelled machines capitalists could employ young

children and women, which were paid only about 60% of mans salaries. Lesser wages were the

least of their problems. Low wages of all meant that the whole family had to be employed.

Mothers neglected children because they were too tired from 10+ hour shifts. And the child labor

had a terrible effect on the youth.

Young children starting labor from age 4-5 and doing the same motion all day long,

suffered severely. This repetitive motion degenerated childrens brain, making them simple

obedient robots. Also having young children working with man exposed them to harsh language

and immoral behavior. Young girls, having no morals transferred from parents, acted like man

and would often get pregnant at early age. These young mothers, having no idea what to do with

babies, made everything worse. To keep their hungry babies quiet they used opium, and at the

time it was the common practice. By medical reports of the time, opium turned healthy babies

into little smushed grandpas, and in case that they survived the treatment made them

extremely dumb and prone to all sorts of diseases. These conditions made workers release that

they had to do something.

It wasnt too long before workers released that they had power to stop this. The power of

massive organized strike could put the whole economy to its knees. The extreme part of worker

rights movement was communism. Most labor unions were led by workers with communist


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ideas. Constant strikes slowly gave workers rights that they enjoy today. And by slow I mean

struggle that began in 1600'ds and ended in 1950's.

It took a long time for workers to release their rights. In the mean time they were

squished like sponges by the capitalists. Words can hardly describe he horror of everyday reality

of these man and woman. But their struggle gave us todays civil rights and freedom.

Conclusion

The Industrial age as the period of greatest growth in recorded history. Bay a small

number of revolutionary inventions, old order ceased to exist. Peaceful villagers from feudal

estates found themselves in dark stuffy factories. They were used as a money making tool by the

capitalists. As Marx said: Capital is dead labor, that vampire like, only lives by sucking living

labor, and lives more, the more labor it sucks. Eventually the two sides got in balance. The

Industrial Era never actually stopped. In economy innovation was replaced as the prime factor

with information. Thus bringing as to modern Age of Information.


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Works Cited

Carl, M. (1867).Das Capital: Kritik der Politischen Oekonomie. (F. Engels, Ed.) Hamburg:

Progres Publishers.

Smith, A. (1998).An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

London: Elcbook.

Williams-Ellis, A., & Fisher, F. (1947). The Story of English Life. New York: Coward-

McCaninc.

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THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION