preindustrial society

What was pre-industrial society like?

• From 1300 to 1750: work and social life mixed

• Children learnt to milk cows, churn butter & farm animals

• Farmers relied on tools that changed little over time such as wooden plows.

Wooden Plow

Diet in pre-industrial society

• Families grew crops for home consumption

• English diet consisted mostly of dark rye bread and porridge, with very little meat.

Diet and healthcare

• Few fruits or vegetables, believed to cause disease, depression, and flatulence

• Rarely bathed. • Belief that physical suffering from illness was

divine way of purifying soul.• Medieval and early modern physicians relied

on astrology and bloodletting.

Population growth

• Low growth rate

• In the 1600s 25% of newborn children died before their first birthday

• and another 25% died before their tenth. • « I lost two or three children as nurslings not without regret, but without great grief. » (Cipolla 127)

PovertyWarPlaguePoor hygiene 

High death rates among young people

High mortality rates

• Epidemics of influenza, typhoid fever, typhus, dysentery, and plague common.

• Black Death killed 25 million Europeans from 1348 to 1351 out of a total population of 80 million = in just 3 years, almost 1/3 of the population of Europe died.

Development of the world population

Wealth

• Wealth concentrated in the hands of the few.• Most people lived on a subsistence level with

little or no savings. • Most peasants struggled simply to meet their

basic needs. • In England between the 15th and 18th centuries,

70 to 80% of household income went to buying food. As opposed to 25% nowadays

• Buying even one piece of clothing was a luxury.

However

• Society depended on peasants for- food and - taxes (a percentage of personal income paid to the nobles or the government).

• Though they controlled wealth in the form of land, the clergy and the nobility not taxed, a further burden on peasants and craftsmen.

The Cottage industry

• Agricultural families worked at night in their cottages to spin or weave cloth with rudimentary machines, such as old spinning wheels.

• The merchants:- provide raw materials (wool or cotton) to the families, - pay the workers for the finished product (such as

woven or spun cloth), - take the goods to market, and - keep the profit from the sale, reinvesting in his or her

trade

The Cottage industry

Typical domestic system home: single room dominated by a spinning wheel which is being worked by a young lady - the spinster. Food is being cooked in the same room. A ladder on the left of the picture will take the workers to their bedrooms once work for the day is finished and a window allows for light and ventilation.

Stengths of the Domestic System

• Workers could work at their own speed while at home or near their own home.

• Children better treated than in the factory system. • Mothers work at home = someone to look after the

children. • Conditions of work better as windows could be open, • people worked at their own speed and • rested when they needed to. • Meals could be taken when needed. • Tension at work minimal as family worked as a unit.

And Weaknesses

• production slow and not enough to meet the demand. • A better and faster system of production needed. • Loss of time as materials taken from cottage to cottage

(production was done in several stages)• Small cottages could not take advantage of new sources

of power. (such as water) • No quality lifestyle : - Four year old children work in the domestic system - Waste gathered around country cottages - Small wages

The Beginnings of Industrialization

Why did it start in England

• large population of workers, • extensive natural resources:

water power and coal to fuel the new machinesiron ore to construct machines, tools, and

buildings rivers for inland transportationharbors from which merchant ships set sail

Why did it start in England

• An expanding economy to support industrialization: Businesspeople invested in the manufacture of new inventions.

• Highly developed banking system: availability of bank loans to invest in new machinery and expand operations.

• Growing overseas trade & economic prosperity led to the increased demand for goods.

• Political stability : Britain took part in many wars in the 1700s, none occurred on British soil.

• Parliament also passed laws to help encourage and protect business ventures.

Inventions

• The Textile Industry modernizes. • In 1733, a machinist named John Kay made a shuttle that sped back and

forth on wheels. Which doubled the work a weaver could do in a day.

Textile

• Richard Arkwright invented the water frame in 1769. This machine used the waterpower from rapid streams to drive spinning wheels

Improvements in Transportation

• The steam engine• Road transport• Railways• …

• BACK TO YOUR BOOKLETS p. 12