A Revolution in Energy and Industry

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A Revolution in Energy and Industry

Chapter 22: The Revolution in Energy and Industry

The Industrial Revolution in Britain

England “takes off” first in the age of the Industries Revolution.

Social and economic factors influenced England’s takeoff.

Colonial markets for manufactured goods contributed.
The canal network constructed in Britain after 1770 contributed.
Productive English agriculture meant capital available for investment and spending money for ordinary people to purchase industrial goods.
Large deposits of iron and coal in England and Wales.

A stable government and an effective central bank also fostered industrial growth in England.

A growing demand for cotton textiles led to the creation for the world’s first large factories.

This led to cheaper cotton goods, a dramatic increase in weavers’ wages, the movement of large numbers of agricultural workers into industry and easier access to yarn for handloom weavers.

The tendency to hire family units in the early factories was usually a response to the wishes of the family.

But the labor force of early rural textile factories was recruited primarily from orphaned children.

The putting-out system could not keep up with demand.

By 1850 in England production of some products, such as cotton, coal, and iron, was organized in large factories, while small workshops continued to produce many final consumer products, such as metal tools, tableware, and toys.

The Crystal Palace exhibition of 1851 commemorated the industrial dominance of Britain.

The harnessing of steam power helped to transform Europe industrially

1) This was one of the hallmarks of the Industrial Revolution

Part of the general revolution was the transformation from wood burning to coal burning.
Transportation and manufacturing were revolutionized by steam power.
The early steam engines of Savery and Newcomer converted to coal into energy.

The earliest steam engines were used to pump water out of coalmines.

The major breakthrough in energy and power supplies that catalyzed the
Industrial Revolution was James Watt’s steam engine, developed and marketed between the 1760s and 1780s.

(a) He solved the inefficiency problems of early steam engines by adding a separate condenser.

Steam power was used in many industries.

Beginning in the 1830s, railroads transformed the economy, society, and culture.

(a) The world’s first important railroad, completed in 1830, ran between London and Manchester.

(b) By reducing the cost of overland freight, the railroad created national markets.

Industrialization and the growth of an urban working class led to theories of Malthus and Ricardo about the likely consequences of overpopulation and the likely stagnation of worker’s standard of living (“the iron law of wages”)

(a) British economist Thomas Malthus argued that population always grew
faster than the food supply.

Industrialization in Continental Europe

There were several variations on the industrialization theme. Different countries followed different routes.

Belgium and the United States followed Britain’s lead.
France showed only gradual growth in the early 19th century.
By 1913 Germany and the United Sates were challenging British leadership in industrialization.

The Challenge of Industrialization

Continental Countries had a number of disadvantages in industrialization

The Napoleonic Wars had devastated the European continent.
It was difficult for continental manufacturers to compete with inexpensive imported British goods.
As industrial enterprises grew larger, greater and greater investments were required to set them up.
Continental workers lacked the technological skills British workers had developed.
The new technology was complex and expensive.
Resistance of landowning elites.
Fritz Harcort attempted to build steam engines in Germany but had difficulties:

lack of highly skilled laborers needed in the industry
lack of specific materials required in the production process
terrible conditions of German roads
the arrogance of the mechanics hired from England.

Continental countries also had advantages.

Most continental countries had a well-developed cottage industry and urban artisan tradition.
Continental countries could simply “borrow” advanced British technology.

William Cockerill was an English carpenter who built cotton-spinning equipment in Belgium.

Unified national markets.
Continental countries had strong independent governments.
A strong merchant capitalist class.

In Belgium, France, and Prussia the state provided important financial assistance to promote industrialization.

Belgian government construction of a state-owned railway system.
Prussian government guarantees of principle and interest on railway bonds.
French government acquisition and improvement of roadbeds.
Widespread tariff protection for manufactured goods.

German nationalists Friedrich List promoted economic nationalism, the idea that to industrialize a country needed trade barriers to protect its manufacturers.

Changes in banking on the continent, such as the creation of limited liability corporations, also facilitated industrialization.

The railroads impacted culture in western Europe in various ways:

The introduction of new words and idioms to everyday speech.
Idolization of railway engineers.
Changes in people’s conception of speed.
The construction of massive railroad stations expressing the power and awe of the new age.

Railway construction on the Continent featured varying degrees of government and business involvement.

Capital and Labor

The growth of a middle class altered European society.

A new class of factory owners emerged in this period

Factory workers emerged as a new group in society

Many writers portrayed the harsh working conditions for factory workers.

Engels lashed out at factory owners in his book The Condition of the Working Class in England (1844).

He accused the British middle class of “mass murder” and “wholesale robbery.”

Ure and Chadwick argued that industrialization had improved the quality of life for people.

Recent statistical studies suggest that workers’ standard of living began to rise after 1820.

Conditions of work changed in the newly emerging capitalists age.

Factory work meant more discipline and loss of personal freedom.

The greatest change workers faced with the shift from cottage industry to factory work was a new tempo and discipline.

In the subcontracting systems of hiring labor, owners paid the subcontractor a set sum based on his crew’s production.

Child labor increased.

Children and parents worked long hours.

Parliament sought to limit child labor (the Factory Act of 1833)

Labor legislation in the first half of the 19th century curtailed child and female labor.

Eventually the Industrial Revolution strengthened the notion of a woman’s “separate sphere,” as women increasingly stayed home to take care of the household while men went to the factories.

Scholarly debate about the origins of the sexual division of labor during the Industrial Revolution revolved around arguments ascribing the division it ingrained patriarchal traditions versus those ascribing it to economic and biological factors.

Poor working conditions, starvation wages, and the liberal capitalist legal attack on artisan guilds led to the development of workers’ organization (trade unions).

The Amalgamated Society of Engineers was an example of these craft based, new model new model unions.

The key demand of the Chartist Movement in Britain was that all men have the right to vote (universal manhood suffrage).

The British Parliament would eventually outlaw labor unions and working-class political activities with the Combination acts of 1799.

The Scottish industrialist Robert Owen attempted to improve the labor conditions for workers.

He established a model, utopian community of New Harmony, Indiana.
He was opposed to the employment of young children.
He founded the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union.
He provided workers in his factories with a variety of benefits, including health care, day care, and decent housing.

Generally speaking, workers consumed more calories and a wider variety of foodstuffs over time during the Industrial Revolution.

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