Consequences of Industrialization

Lifestyles & Economic Theories

Working-Class Lifestyles

• Agricultural Work: Men & Women
• Mining
• Time, Work-Discipline

Life in the Cities

Women’s Work

Men’s Work

Children’s Work

Housing & Sanitation

19th century maid in London

19th century maid in London

Drawing of children in Factories

image of the slums in industrial London.

• women’s work
  • 50% domestic work
  • Then textiles
  • some in pottery
• Children’s work
  • factories, especially textile factories
  • work specifically designed for children.
    • work where their small bodies can more easily perform the duty rather than an adult
    • textile work, repairing threads in the cloth without turning off off the machine.
    • work in the mine as carriers
• First sewers:
  • major outbreaks of cholera in 1830s to 1850s.
  • beginning in the 1850s.

Life Expectancy: Countryside Vs Cities

• Countryside
  • Laborer in Rutland: 38
  • Middle Class Neighbor: 52

• Cities
  • Manchester Laborer: 17
  • Manchester Middle Class: 38

Middle Class Philosophy

• Men work & Women take care of children
• Expand the Franchise
• Laissez-Fair Ideology
• Moral View of Poverty

Liberal Legislation: Reform Act (1832)

• Reforms Electoral System: reduced property requirements
• ~200,000 => ~400,000 voters
• Working classes excluded

Liberal Legislation: Poor Law Amendment Act (1834)

• Thomas Malthus, Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)
• David Ricardo, Iron Law of Wages (1817)
• Previous system: Out-relief
• New System: Workhouse with bad conditions.
• Philosophy: Prevent Laziness

• Economic ideas that artificially increasing money for people was bad.
• Malthus: Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)
  • Argued that population growth would always outstrip food supply.
  • Therefore, poverty was inevitable.
  • Population grows, then famine, then population shrinks, then population grows again.
• Ricardo: Iron Law of Wages (1817)
  • Argued that wages would always tend toward the minimum necessary to sustain life.
  • Therefore, poverty was inevitable.
  • Wages go up, but then population grows, and wages go down.
• Led to idea that the poor were poor because they were lazy, and that the government should not help them.
• Poor Law Amendment Act (1834)
  • Previous system: Out-relief
    • Poor people were given money to help them survive.
    • The dole.
      • People could get money without working.
  • New System: Workhouse with bad conditions.
    • Poor people were given work in exchange for food and shelter.
    • Conditions were intentionally bad to discourage people from seeking help.
    • Some workhouses go so bad, people went there to die to have a burial.
  • Philosophy: Prevent Laziness
    • The poor were poor because they were lazy, and the government should not help them.

Liberal Legislation: Factory Act (1833)

• 9-13 y.o. < 9 hr/day
• 13-18 y.o. < 12 hr/day
• 2 hrs education / day

Origins of Socialism

• Fundamental Problem:
  • People Still going hungry, despite more food than ever.
  • Argued that humans were inherently socially cooperative creatures

• Utopian Socialists
  • Tried Creating New Alternative Societies
• Karl Marx (1818-1883) & Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
  • Communist Manifesto (1848)

Utopian Socialists

• Ideal Communities.
• Robert Owen (1771-1858)
  • New Harmony, Indiana
• Charles Fourier (1772-1837)
  • Phalansteries

• Utopian socialists
  • Made original critique of the changes brought by ind rev.(563)
  • Imagined ideal communities through which humanity would prosper.
  • Reaction to social consequences of econ. Liberalism.
  • Many workers found explanatory power in their criticisms of capitalism/liberalism (563)
• Robert Owen
  • New Harmony, Indiana
  • textile manufacturer in Scotland
  • Believed that the environment shaped human character
  • Moved to the US and created New Harmony, Indiana (1825)
  • Planned community based around cooperation.
• Charles Fourier
  • Phalansteries
  • French philosopher
  • Believed that the industrial revolution was destroying human character and that people were inherently cooperative.
  • Proposed a new type of community called a phalanstery, which would be self-sufficient and cooperative.
    • People lived and worked together.
    • Should follow passion.
    • Less desirable jobs paid more.

Scientific Socialism: Marx and Engels

• Communist Manifesto (1848)
  • Class Struggle
    • Feudalism → Capitalism → Socialism → Communism
    • Bourgeoisie vs Proletariat
  • Capitalism will collapse under its own weight.
  • Revolutionary Socialism.
  • State ownership of the means of production.