INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

THE CHANGE TO INDUSTRIAL ENGLANDThe Land and EnclosuresEngland in 1700 was still chiefly a land of villages, there were no big towns except London, and agriculture was the occupation of the vast majority of the people.Next in importance to agriculture came spinning and cloth-making. Later on, two changes, took place during the second half of the eighteenth century, altered this old England.These two changes were the enclosure of the common-field and the coming of power- driven machinery.The Agricultural RevolutionThe enclosures of the eighteenth century were accompanied by a revolution in the method of farming. Pioneers of scientific farming saw that the old methods were wasteful and inefficient.Tethro Tull who invented a machine for sowing seed which took the place of the human sower.Another pioneer was Lord Townshend, he proved that by planting root crops (turnips and mangolds) and clover all the land could always be kept under cultivation, the planting of the turnips and clover had beneficial effects on the soil.Robert Bakewell specialized in producing large, fat sheep, paying less attention to the quality of the wool.

The need for EnclosuresWhen the new methods of farming became widely known. The old system of English agricultural collapsed. In 1801 came the general Enclosure Act which rendered easier the process of enclosure.Enclosures were of two kind a) enclosure of the common or waste, which was reclaimed for the plough and b) enclosure of the open fields, by redistributing the land.When the land came to be re-divided, many poor persons were unable to show a legal right to their share of it. If they could show a legal right the poor were often unable to pay the cost of hedging and so had to sell their share. They lost the right of graze animals on the waste and to collect fuel.THE COMING OF MACHINARYIn the eighteenth century a change developed in the method and scale of industry. When George III died, the nation of farmers and village craftsmen had become mainly a nation of mechanics and factory hand. Industrial revolution was gradual. The first inventions were applied to the old woolen industry; In 1733 John Kay invented his flying shuttle, a mechanical device which greatly increased the speed at which the weavers of cloth could work. Kays invention led to the gradual disappearance of the old hand-loom. The new power-loom wove the cloth so fast, that the spinners, they still working on the old fashioned spindle, could not keep pace with the demand for more cotton so Hargreaves invented the multiple spinning jenny (1764) which made it possible for one man to work at first eigth, later on the spinning jenny was soon improve by Richard Arkwright who developed the spinning frame (1771).There were also great developments in the coal and iron industries. The manufacture of iron had been carried on in England early times. Then came the discovery that it was possible to turn coal into coke and used it instead of char-coal. The first man to use coke in furnaces was Abraham Darby.John Wilkinson was a man with a total belief in iron. H e built the largest ironworks in the country and many others buildings.James Watt was the inventor of a practical and economical steam-engine.Roads and CanalsThe coming of machinery coincided with an improvement in the transport of goods, the production of coal, iron, and others heavy materials were necessary to make canals in the eighteenth century and then of railways in the nineteenth century. At the same time as the canals were made, the roads were improved.Pack-horses, using rough track and the mails carried light goods and the heavy goods were carried by sea (coals). The unpleasant conditions of travel remained with little alteration till the middle of the eighteen century, the Turnpikes Trust were organize on a larger scale and a real step forward in road-making was taken. Coaches were then able to travel much faster.The eighteen century produced three great road engineers; METCALFE designed of the chief roads in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire. TELFORD a Scottish shepherds son built the Holy head Road, he built the iron suspension-bridge over the Menai Straits and MACADAM who invented new process of road-making, it consisted in using small stones which could be easily crushed more easily after the invention of the steam-roller. He discovered stage-coach.English canals, constructed during the second half of the eighteen century, were built chiefly for the transport of coal.James Brindley a brilliant engineer but an illiterate man, built a canal between Worsley and Manchester canals were the principal means of transport for coal, iron and the products of the new industries, then appeared the steam- locomotive.THE NEW TOWNSThe change from the old to the New England coincided with a remarkable increase in the population. The number of people living in England and Wales at the accession of George III (1760) was about 7 million, in the sixty years of George IIIs reign the population of England and Wales nearly double. This increase was continued during the nineteenth century. All the reasons for these remarkable increases were not clear but they were connected with the change from a rural to an urban society for instance: the new urban workers married earlier and had families than had been customary under the old conditions of rural life. This new urban population grew up in the industrial district such as BIRMINGHAM, GLASGOW, MASCHESTER, LIVERPOOL, LEEDS, BRADFORD and SHEFFIELD grew to be huge, sprawling cities. With the exception of London, they were all the creation of the Industrial Revolution, there were immigrations of people from the south to the midlands and north.ATTITUDE OF STATESMEN TO THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONThis new industrial Britain came when England lost the thirteen American colonies and helped to defeat Napoleon. The statesmen who governed Britain during that time had small conception of the fact that a revolution in the habits of mankind was taking place before their eyes. For this reason two problems emerged, THE SLUMS and the relation between CAPITAL and LABOUR.The towns of the Industrial Revolution, were (barracks for cheap labour, not homes for citizens) they had no sanitation laws, consequently the (jerry-builder) appeared, they could work his will. Houses for the workers had to be built as quickly as possible, these houses were built without sanitation, lacking light, lacking air. For this condition their descendants often grew up stunted both in body and in mind, so, generations grew up divorced from nature.LAISSEZ-FAIREThe second great problem of the modern word was the relations between Capital and labour.The age of mechanical invention, and the age of steam power, both began at the moment remarkably well timed for the expansion of British trade, the population of the United States grew rapidly, and they were an agricultural not a manufacturing people, trade with America grew apace, England imported American cotton and exported to the United.India was one of the best markets for Lancashire cotton goods. Britain captured the trade of the world, west as well as East.The merchants made their fortune by this world trade. England was rich in supplies of coal and iron, the essential materials of the new industries, the wealth of British merchants and the skill of British workmen, during the first phase of the Industrial Revolution, enabled the country to carry on the long war against France (1793-1815). The weapons which beat Napoleon were made in Birmingham.The men who made the business world of modern industry claimed to right to manage their affairs in their own way, Laissez-faire (leave things alone), Adam Smith was the prophet of free trade, and he held that all government interference was harmful to trade. He made a convert of the new Prime Minister, William Pitt, who reduce many trade restrictions, and prepared the way for the Free Trade of the next century. Besides desiring free trade foreign nations, the masters of the new industries were anxious to have complete freedom in dealing with their own work-people; they wished to abolish all the laws which had, from olden times, regulated industry.The suffering of the work-people during the Industrial Revolution was undoubtedly great. The workers had the necessity to live near the factories, in the new towns, built to house them. They were also compelled to suffer the iron of the factory itself.Men, women, and small children were made to work for 12, 14, or even 16 hours a day, tending dangerous machines, breathing foul air. The social effects of the industrial revolution were enormous, workers tried to join together to protect themselves against powerful employers. They wanted fair wages and reasonable conditions in which to work. The government supported the factory owners, and made the breaking of machinery punishable by death. The government was afraid of a revolution like the one in France.