Definition of the Industrial Revolution

Definition of the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period of rapid change. It was a tune when countries all over began to develop more and more machines that aided them into producing larger quantities of goods more quickly. Migration to the bigger cities increased massively due to people in the countryside looking for work. This all contributed to technology and transport improving significantly to keep up with the production line of goods. The first country to experience this revolutionary transformation was Britain. After that, more countries followed Britain’s lead and became industrialized.

The Most Important Changes of the Industrial Revolution

The most important changes of the Industrial Revolution were:

The migration of people from the countryside to the cities (mainly the cities up north of Britain; Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle etc.)

The improvements of transport such as the construction of the railways, because then all the rapidly produced goods could be transported more efficiently. It shortened the length of time needed to usually transport goods, therefore allowing businesses to thrive. Also the construction of the railways required lots of iron, this gave a huge boost to the iron industry, again providing more jobs.

What Types of Industry were Important?

Cotton was a majorly important industry, exports of it rose significantly from £11,000 a year in the 1740’s to a whopping £17million by 1820. This was due to a number of reasons:

The population of Britain was increasing rapidly from 10.7million in 1750 to a more than double 27.4million in 1850. This meant

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that there were more textile producers to produce more cloth, as it was very profitable.

There was a bigger supply of cotton, as North America became independent meaning the Americans were free to look for new materials to sell. Cotton plantations proved very successful and in addition in 1793 Eli Whitney invented a ‘cotton gin’ making preparing cotton 50 times faster for the slaves than before. Huge amounts of cotton were imported from America to Britain.

People on average, spent more money in the 18th

Century and fashion was quite important back then as it still is nowadays leading towards an increase in demand for cotton.

Britain’s industry was growing larger and larger; it became the world’s leading trading nation in the late 18th Century. By the early 19th Century, cotton became nearly half of all British exports.

Now to produce vast amounts of goods such as cotton for Britain’s growing industry, workers were needed to run the machines in the factories. These workers mostly came from the countryside as a huge demand for them in the city meant a possibility of better income and lifestyle. This changed Britain significantly as there was now clearly far more people living in the big cities than before.

But this also meant more and more poor labourers were crowded in the same little houses that had no running water and shared the same privy (outside toilet) with many other families nearby. This all resulted to dirt, diseases and even early death. The average death for a labourer from a city such as Leeds came to as shockingly low as nineteen!

Robert OwenAlthough luckily for some factory workers, this was not always the case. If they had an employer like Robert Owen, who believed that if workers were treated better and provided with a better environment and quality of living, then the factory owners would generate bigger profits as all the things listed above would improve the attitude and drive of the workers. He stopped employing children below the age of 10 and gave them an education instead. Robert Owen also wrote several books and sent free copies of his speeches that he made all around Britain, to influential people. In 1816, Owen was summoned to Parliament to discuss his ideas. Parliament agreed and in 1819, passed a new Factory Act to

improve conditions in the mills, it banned children below nine years of age from working in factories and children that were over nine years old could only work for 12 hours. However, other factory owners failed to agree with Owen and stood

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very against his concepts, therefore the act couldn’t bring as many improvements as Owen had wished.

Child Workers

Towards the beginning of the Industrial Revolution there were no laws referring to working conditions in industrial plants as it just wasn’t an issue back then but as factories, mills and mines etc. began developing and requiring more workers, the owners of these industrial plants did not want to pay high wages so that they could earn more profit. This meant that children became the absolute ideal employees. They were paid much lower and were not educated enough to even think of arguing or complain. Their body sizes were perfect as well, they were small and agile enough to fit between the machinery that ordinary adult workers were unable to. These children all needed these jobs desperately to help with their family incomes and they often ended up working for extremely long hours on end sometimes up to twelve

hours! Some factories even took orphans from workhouses to work for them for none other than simple food and clothing. Children began working in factories from as young as 4 or 5 years old. There were some serious accidents where children were scalped when their hair got caught in the machines, hands were crushed and some children killed when they went to sleep and fell into the machine.

Accommodation for workers

The houses built for the factory workers were often not built to standard. Many builders often wanted quick and easy profit so the houses they built were usually small, poorly constructed and very soon became very nasty to live in. This was only allowed because during the start of the 19th Century, there were

no laws that stated certain standards that houses were to be built under so the builders to advantage of this. The worst of these houses were the ones that joined to the back of the row behind, this meant awful ventilation and in addition the rooms were tiny (often ten feet by fourteen feet!) Hygiene was terrible for the

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factory workers and this then caused outbreaks of deadly diseases such as cholera, typhoid and typhus.

Transport

During the period between 1750 and 1900, Britain developed many new ways of transport:

Roads- the coaches became better designed with things such as narrower wheels and added to the fact that the road surfaces were much improved, by the 1780’s, coaches travelled much faster than it had ever done before.

Canals- work on the great expansion of canals began in the 1760’s and eventually by

the 1790’s a huge national network of canals had been created. Cargos could now cross the country from places like Liverpool up north to places down south such as London.

Railways- in 1832, 166 miles of railway track had been open and speedily by 1850 there were 6,559 miles of railway track in use all over the country. It helped businesses transport all their goods faster then roads and canals ever could. It also gave a huge boost towards the iron industry, as the construction of the railway tracks required a lot of iron.

What was Crime and Punishment like?

The amount of crime increased hugely during the 1700’s as bigger populated and bustling towns and cities made the life of criminals a lot easier. This increased also increased the severity of punishments but many of the criminals escaped from the hands of justice. Towns had watchmen, which were also nicknamed ‘Charleys’ by the people as they started in the reign of Charles II that patrolled the streets keeping their eyes out for anything suspicious. These men were paid

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but their wages came to as little as 25pence a week, only the people that could not find themselves a better job would take on the duty of a watchman. Although most of these watchmen were just considered as a joke as most of them often had a box where they would sleep in which is why it is plain to see that many of the criminals got away. It is shocking to think that nowadays we no longer have death penalties in this country but back 1800’s, a child as young as nine years old was hanged in public for setting fire to a house. Capital crimes in the 1800’s included:

Murder, treason or piracy Stealing anything worth 25pence or

more Stealing an heiress Cutting down trees in an avenue Shooting a rabbit

Harsh public hangings were common and attending one was considered to be a day out for all the family! Eventually in 1848 things began to die down and children aged ten were transported to Britain’s colonies such as Australia. Public executions stopped altogether in 1868.

Why was British Industry so Successful?

In my opinion, the British Industry was so successful due to these three main factors: Britain had plenty of raw materials, Britain’s empire and overseas trade were growing and also the transport of Britain was improved. I chose them because I think that without these factors, Britain would never have become as successful as it was. Raw materials were essential and Britain were lucky enough to have heap loads of it, if it weren’t for coal and iron the transport of Britain would not have flourished as it did. Also the importance of Britain’s empire and overseas trade could not be stressed enough, raw materials from America such as cotton created huge industries that expanded massively bringing in lots of profit and without trading overseas, there would be no use in making so many goods in the factories because there would be no one to buy them! Last but not least, transport made a big impact on everything; goods were of course transported much more efficiently and quickly as well as making the raw materials cheaper and more reliable for the factories and manufacturers. The transport improvement allowed new concepts and inventions to spread more quickly.

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Bibliography

J.F. Aylett, In Serach Of History 1714-1900, chapter 10 Byrom, Counsell, Gorman, Riley and Wrenn, Minds and

Machines, Britain 1750,1900, chapters 1,3,4,5,10 Re-discovering, Britain 1750-1900, Depth Study 1 http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/

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vindust.html accessed 21.11.10 http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRowen.htm accessed

3.12.10 http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/year9/industrialrevolution/

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