Industrial Revolution
Braidie LeClair
Background
Before the late 18th century, production of goods centered around the operation and organization of the common household[1]and agriculture. Economies werenot oriented around large-scale urbanism or production but rather small-scale self-reliance due to a lack of a global or national market[2]. Economic life was mainly affected by nature–topography, climate, geology, ecology–and the technology available to manipulate it, resulting in pre-industrial economies developing and specializing in manually intensive and climate-based farming techniques[3]. The first true economy spurred from the success of the Neolithic Revolution when nomads began to develop small societies and establish farms after they had discovered agriculture and had effectively domesticated animals. The ability to grow a substantial and reliable amount of food year after year allowed humans to increase their rate of reproduction creating a higher magnitude of a stable workforce[4].
As time progressed, increased commercialism and trade resulted from increased exploration, expeditions and conquests (such as those done by Alexander the Great),[5] leading to more economic awareness and curiosity. This increase in exploration gradually resulted in a shift from villages and households being self-sufficient to increased desire and need for commercial products. Throughout the Middle Ages, the world economy continued to grow with an increase of population and trade. In European cities, craftsmen facilitated trade and commerce through guilds and the Silk Road, which facilitated trade throughout Europe, China and central Asia[6]. As other economic systems arose, such as feudalism, imperialism and colonialism, they had numerous effects on society. Social hierarchy, life expectancy and quality, application of modern technology and the price and availability of goods all went hand-in-hand as societies shifted from one economy to the next.
Turning Point
The Industrial Revolution cannot be broken down and analyzed into a single event due to the complicated, intricate and diverse history it holds. The Industrial Revolution in its raw essence was a compilation of new technology, the use of new sources of energy, and an increased concentration of workers that resulted in the emergence of a new society[7].The first nation to truly commence the Industrial Revolution was Great Britain with its modernization of the factory system and industrial production across numerous industries such as cotton, iron and textiles. The first modernized factory was built between 1718-1721 in Derby, England. The factory was called “Lombe’s Mill,” a silk-throwing mill invented by Thomas Lombe. This factory was the first successfully powered and modernized production operation in the world and the model for the factory concept that become a critical aspect of the Industrial Revolution[8]. Other inventions--James Hargreaves’ cotton jenny (1764)Richard Arkwright’s water-powered spinning frame (1769-1775), Steam-powered printing presses (1830) andHenry Cort’s reverberatory furnace for refining iron (1784)--all revolutionized the rate and manner of production as well as standardized the quality of products in Britain’s early Industrial Revolution.This early revolution also allowed Great Britain to be the first country to have the majority of its population shift from an agricultural economy to an industrial one[9].Great Britain was able to take the lead due to numerous factors, including bountiful iron and coal resources, advanced transportation system, commercial power allotting merchants to have the capital to invest in new enterprises, and a successful capitalist empire[10].
Effect
In the “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” Karl Marx and Frederick Engels said, “This development has, in its time, reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background every class handed down from the Middle Ages.”[11]In his interpretation, he saw the reality that industrialization had altered both social and economic functioning in a significant way. However, he lacked insight to truly see that the Industrial Revolution was one of the rare occasions in world history where humanity altered its framework of existence.Humanity’s curiosity to create newer and more efficient means of production through reorganization of the business structure and of new technology created an entirely new society. While Great Britain was the first to transfer to an industrial economy, it wasnot long before other countries took pursuit and changed the modern global economy. Countries beganto grow due to an increase in trade and a dedicated pursuit of new and efficient ways in order to create a large amount of product at a low cost through means such as the assembly line and task specialization. Towns and cities would spring up all over the world located near factories, which were able to employ large masses of workers creating more urban and industrialized societies. The Industrial Revolution altered the human experience in fundamental aspects such as habits of thoughts, relations between men and women, relations between the worker and the employer, and the alteration in systems of organization and production[12]. These impacts touched on many different realms of humanity, including social foundations, economic production, and the world as a whole.
Socially, the industrial revolution changed restructured the organization and role for workersin society. For the first time in modern history, people worked outside of the local environment of their homes and would commute to their place of employment (ex. a factory). The environment for the employee changed drastically for no longer were they outdoors working at their own pace but rather in a dimly lit and unventilated factory being judged on the rate of efficiency of their work. Women,primarily suffered from this change in structure in comparison men. In both the urban economy and the rural agricultural world, women were traditionally regarded as playing an equally important role as men. However after the Industrial Revolution, their status changed and their labor became a commodity to be exploited. They were as a rule given the lowest-skilled, lowest-paying jobs and abused by their bosses. Women had no political, social, or economic rights outside the home so often they would be forced to work a full day and then fulfill their obligations within the home[13]. From a more global perspective, population growth skyrocketed due to an increase in medical knowledge and living standards. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the mid 1700s, the world’s human population grew by about 57 percent to 700 million, by 1800 reached one billion and just before the dawn of the 20th century increased 400% to a global population of six billion people[14]. New towns began to spring up and rapidly develop oriented around the location of the factory. However, these towns lacked basic services and traditional forms of social organization. The combination of haphazard development, inadequate water supplies, coal smoke, and industrial wastes made them unhealthy[15].
The Industrial Revolution shifted the economic process from task-centered work to process-centered organizations radically altered the framework of the global economy. The Industrial Revolution created the modern worker - a person who performs a particular task according to a more or less fixed set of rules. The modern worker is assessed by their completion of the task by the authority of their manager who oversees the individual's work based on how it contributes to the objectives of the overall enterprise[16]. Essentially, employees were “de-skilled” – whatever training they had before was meaningless as long as they could effectively work on the machines in the factory. This robbery of educated specialization represented a loss of both status and income to workers who by reducing their role of skill, factory owners could effectively control the wages they paid. This system created a monopoly and environment for exploitation because if an unskilled worker were to become dissatisfied with his income, another worker could easily replace him[17].
The Industrial Revolution additionally marked a radical change in the relationship between humans and the ecology and environment of the planet Earth. Since the Industrial Revolution, capitalism has not only contributed to the depletion of natural resources. Fossil fuels replaced wind, water and wood, used primarily for the manufacture of textiles and the development of iron making processes. This form of environmental degradation via the burning of fossil fuels became a major contributor to global warming[18].Post-Industrial Revolution capitalism has played a significant role in the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere due to the heavy reliance upon fossil fuels. In 2000, 59 per cent of greenhouse gases came from CO2 emitted by fossil fuels[19].
[1]Stearns, Peter N. “The Industrial Revolution in World History”. 4th ed. Westview Press, 2012 p. 7
[2]Ward, J.R. "The Industrial Revolution and British Imperialism, 1750-1850." The Economic History Review 47.1, 1994
[3]Ogilvie, Sheilagh, “'Whatever Is, Is Right'? Economic Institutions in Pre-Industrial Europe”. 2007
[4]Foley, Robert, and Clive Gamble. “Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences”. The Royal Society. 2009.
[5]William Henry Crosby, “Quintus Curtius Rufus: Life and exploits of Alexander the Great”, 2012
[6] Economypoint.org, “Economy in the Middle Ages”, 2012
[7]Montagna, Joseph A. "The Industrial Revolution”. Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, 2013.
[8]Jones, S.R.H. "Technology, Transaction Costs, and the Transition to FactoryProduction in the British Silk Industry, 1700-1870." The Journal of Economic History 47.1. 1987
[9]Stearns, Peter N. The Industrial Revolution in World History. 4th ed. Westview Press, 2012 p. 7
[10]Montagna, Joseph A. "The Industrial Revolution”. Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, 2013.
[11]Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party: Bourgeois andProletarians. Progress Publishers, 1969.
[12]Stearns, Peter N. The Industrial Revolution in World History. 4th ed. Westview Press, 2012 p. 5
[13]Fitzgerald, Richard D. "The Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution." Gale, 2000.
[14]McLamb, Eric. "The Ecological Impact of the Industrial Revolution." Ecology Communications Group, Inc, 2011.
[15]McLamb, Eric. "The Ecological Impact of the Industrial Revolution." Ecology Communications Group, Inc, 2011.
[16]Michael Hammer, “Reversing the industrial revolution”, 1996.
[17]Dewald, Jonathan. "Europe 1450 to 1789." Thomson; Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004.
[18]Stiner, Mary C., and Gillian Feeley-Harnik. "Energy and Ecosystems." University of California Press, 2011. 78-102.
[19]Baer, Hans. “Global Warming as a By-product of the Capitalist Treadmill of Production and Consumption—The Need for an Alternative Global System. The Australian Journal of Anthropology”.The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2008.
Bibliography
Baer, H. (2008), Global Warming as a By-product of the Capitalist Treadmill of
Production and Consumption—The Need for an Alternative Global System. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 19: 58–62.
Dewald, Jonathan. "Europe 1450 to 1789." Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World.
Vol. 3. New York: Thomson; Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004. N. pag. Print.
Fitzgerald, Richard D. "The Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution." Science and Its Times: Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific Discovery. Ed. Josh Lauer and Neil Schlager. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 2000. 376-381. Global Issues In Context. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.
Foley, Robert, and Clive Gamble. Philosophical Transactions: Biological
Sciences. London: The Royal Society, 2009. Print. Vol. 364 of The
Evolution of Society.
Jones, S.R.H. "Technology, Transaction Costs, and the Transition to Factory
Production in the British Silk Industry, 1700-1870." The Journal of
Economic History 47.1 (1987): 76-78. Print.
Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party: Bourgeois and
Proletarians. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1969. Vol. 1 of Marx/
Engels Selected Works. www.Marxists.org. Web. 18 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf>.
McLamb, Eric. "The Ecological Impact of the Industrial Revolution."
Ecology.com. Ecology Communications Group, Inc, 18 Sept. 2011. Web.
17 Apr. 2013. <http://www.ecology.com/2011/09/18/
ecological-impact-industrial-revolution/>.
Montagna, Joseph A. "The Industrial Revolution." www.Yale.edu. Yale-New Haven
Teachers Institute, 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. <http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/
curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.06.x.html#c>.
Ogilvie, Sheilagh, 'Whatever Is, Is Right'? Economic Institutions in Pre-Industrial Europe (Tawney Lecture 2006) (August 2007). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 2066.
Stearns, Peter N. The Industrial Revolution in World History. 4th ed. Boulder:
Westview Press, 2012. Print.
Stiner, Mary C., and Gillian Feeley-Harnik. "Energy and Ecosystems." 2011.
Energy and Ecosystems. Comp. Andrew Shyrock and Daniel Lord Smail.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. 78-102. Print.
Ward, J.R. "The Industrial Revolution and British Imperialism, 1750-1850."
The Economic History Review 47.1 (1994): 44-65. Print.
Braidie LeClair
Background
Before the late 18th century, production of goods centered around the operation and organization of the common household[1]and agriculture. Economies werenot oriented around large-scale urbanism or production but rather small-scale self-reliance due to a lack of a global or national market[2]. Economic life was mainly affected by nature–topography, climate, geology, ecology–and the technology available to manipulate it, resulting in pre-industrial economies developing and specializing in manually intensive and climate-based farming techniques[3]. The first true economy spurred from the success of the Neolithic Revolution when nomads began to develop small societies and establish farms after they had discovered agriculture and had effectively domesticated animals. The ability to grow a substantial and reliable amount of food year after year allowed humans to increase their rate of reproduction creating a higher magnitude of a stable workforce[4].
As time progressed, increased commercialism and trade resulted from increased exploration, expeditions and conquests (such as those done by Alexander the Great),[5] leading to more economic awareness and curiosity. This increase in exploration gradually resulted in a shift from villages and households being self-sufficient to increased desire and need for commercial products. Throughout the Middle Ages, the world economy continued to grow with an increase of population and trade. In European cities, craftsmen facilitated trade and commerce through guilds and the Silk Road, which facilitated trade throughout Europe, China and central Asia[6]. As other economic systems arose, such as feudalism, imperialism and colonialism, they had numerous effects on society. Social hierarchy, life expectancy and quality, application of modern technology and the price and availability of goods all went hand-in-hand as societies shifted from one economy to the next.
Turning Point
The Industrial Revolution cannot be broken down and analyzed into a single event due to the complicated, intricate and diverse history it holds. The Industrial Revolution in its raw essence was a compilation of new technology, the use of new sources of energy, and an increased concentration of workers that resulted in the emergence of a new society[7].The first nation to truly commence the Industrial Revolution was Great Britain with its modernization of the factory system and industrial production across numerous industries such as cotton, iron and textiles. The first modernized factory was built between 1718-1721 in Derby, England. The factory was called “Lombe’s Mill,” a silk-throwing mill invented by Thomas Lombe. This factory was the first successfully powered and modernized production operation in the world and the model for the factory concept that become a critical aspect of the Industrial Revolution[8]. Other inventions--James Hargreaves’ cotton jenny (1764)Richard Arkwright’s water-powered spinning frame (1769-1775), Steam-powered printing presses (1830) andHenry Cort’s reverberatory furnace for refining iron (1784)--all revolutionized the rate and manner of production as well as standardized the quality of products in Britain’s early Industrial Revolution.This early revolution also allowed Great Britain to be the first country to have the majority of its population shift from an agricultural economy to an industrial one[9].Great Britain was able to take the lead due to numerous factors, including bountiful iron and coal resources, advanced transportation system, commercial power allotting merchants to have the capital to invest in new enterprises, and a successful capitalist empire[10].
Effect
In the “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” Karl Marx and Frederick Engels said, “This development has, in its time, reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background every class handed down from the Middle Ages.”[11]In his interpretation, he saw the reality that industrialization had altered both social and economic functioning in a significant way. However, he lacked insight to truly see that the Industrial Revolution was one of the rare occasions in world history where humanity altered its framework of existence.Humanity’s curiosity to create newer and more efficient means of production through reorganization of the business structure and of new technology created an entirely new society. While Great Britain was the first to transfer to an industrial economy, it wasnot long before other countries took pursuit and changed the modern global economy. Countries beganto grow due to an increase in trade and a dedicated pursuit of new and efficient ways in order to create a large amount of product at a low cost through means such as the assembly line and task specialization. Towns and cities would spring up all over the world located near factories, which were able to employ large masses of workers creating more urban and industrialized societies. The Industrial Revolution altered the human experience in fundamental aspects such as habits of thoughts, relations between men and women, relations between the worker and the employer, and the alteration in systems of organization and production[12]. These impacts touched on many different realms of humanity, including social foundations, economic production, and the world as a whole.
Socially, the industrial revolution changed restructured the organization and role for workersin society. For the first time in modern history, people worked outside of the local environment of their homes and would commute to their place of employment (ex. a factory). The environment for the employee changed drastically for no longer were they outdoors working at their own pace but rather in a dimly lit and unventilated factory being judged on the rate of efficiency of their work. Women,primarily suffered from this change in structure in comparison men. In both the urban economy and the rural agricultural world, women were traditionally regarded as playing an equally important role as men. However after the Industrial Revolution, their status changed and their labor became a commodity to be exploited. They were as a rule given the lowest-skilled, lowest-paying jobs and abused by their bosses. Women had no political, social, or economic rights outside the home so often they would be forced to work a full day and then fulfill their obligations within the home[13]. From a more global perspective, population growth skyrocketed due to an increase in medical knowledge and living standards. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the mid 1700s, the world’s human population grew by about 57 percent to 700 million, by 1800 reached one billion and just before the dawn of the 20th century increased 400% to a global population of six billion people[14]. New towns began to spring up and rapidly develop oriented around the location of the factory. However, these towns lacked basic services and traditional forms of social organization. The combination of haphazard development, inadequate water supplies, coal smoke, and industrial wastes made them unhealthy[15].
The Industrial Revolution shifted the economic process from task-centered work to process-centered organizations radically altered the framework of the global economy. The Industrial Revolution created the modern worker - a person who performs a particular task according to a more or less fixed set of rules. The modern worker is assessed by their completion of the task by the authority of their manager who oversees the individual's work based on how it contributes to the objectives of the overall enterprise[16]. Essentially, employees were “de-skilled” – whatever training they had before was meaningless as long as they could effectively work on the machines in the factory. This robbery of educated specialization represented a loss of both status and income to workers who by reducing their role of skill, factory owners could effectively control the wages they paid. This system created a monopoly and environment for exploitation because if an unskilled worker were to become dissatisfied with his income, another worker could easily replace him[17].
The Industrial Revolution additionally marked a radical change in the relationship between humans and the ecology and environment of the planet Earth. Since the Industrial Revolution, capitalism has not only contributed to the depletion of natural resources. Fossil fuels replaced wind, water and wood, used primarily for the manufacture of textiles and the development of iron making processes. This form of environmental degradation via the burning of fossil fuels became a major contributor to global warming[18].Post-Industrial Revolution capitalism has played a significant role in the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere due to the heavy reliance upon fossil fuels. In 2000, 59 per cent of greenhouse gases came from CO2 emitted by fossil fuels[19].
[1]Stearns, Peter N. “The Industrial Revolution in World History”. 4th ed. Westview Press, 2012 p. 7
[2]Ward, J.R. "The Industrial Revolution and British Imperialism, 1750-1850." The Economic History Review 47.1, 1994
[3]Ogilvie, Sheilagh, “'Whatever Is, Is Right'? Economic Institutions in Pre-Industrial Europe”. 2007
[4]Foley, Robert, and Clive Gamble. “Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences”. The Royal Society. 2009.
[5]William Henry Crosby, “Quintus Curtius Rufus: Life and exploits of Alexander the Great”, 2012
[6] Economypoint.org, “Economy in the Middle Ages”, 2012
[7]Montagna, Joseph A. "The Industrial Revolution”. Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, 2013.
[8]Jones, S.R.H. "Technology, Transaction Costs, and the Transition to FactoryProduction in the British Silk Industry, 1700-1870." The Journal of Economic History 47.1. 1987
[9]Stearns, Peter N. The Industrial Revolution in World History. 4th ed. Westview Press, 2012 p. 7
[10]Montagna, Joseph A. "The Industrial Revolution”. Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, 2013.
[11]Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party: Bourgeois andProletarians. Progress Publishers, 1969.
[12]Stearns, Peter N. The Industrial Revolution in World History. 4th ed. Westview Press, 2012 p. 5
[13]Fitzgerald, Richard D. "The Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution." Gale, 2000.
[14]McLamb, Eric. "The Ecological Impact of the Industrial Revolution." Ecology Communications Group, Inc, 2011.
[15]McLamb, Eric. "The Ecological Impact of the Industrial Revolution." Ecology Communications Group, Inc, 2011.
[16]Michael Hammer, “Reversing the industrial revolution”, 1996.
[17]Dewald, Jonathan. "Europe 1450 to 1789." Thomson; Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004.
[18]Stiner, Mary C., and Gillian Feeley-Harnik. "Energy and Ecosystems." University of California Press, 2011. 78-102.
[19]Baer, Hans. “Global Warming as a By-product of the Capitalist Treadmill of Production and Consumption—The Need for an Alternative Global System. The Australian Journal of Anthropology”.The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2008.
Bibliography
Baer, H. (2008), Global Warming as a By-product of the Capitalist Treadmill of
Production and Consumption—The Need for an Alternative Global System. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 19: 58–62.
Dewald, Jonathan. "Europe 1450 to 1789." Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World.
Vol. 3. New York: Thomson; Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004. N. pag. Print.
Fitzgerald, Richard D. "The Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution." Science and Its Times: Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific Discovery. Ed. Josh Lauer and Neil Schlager. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 2000. 376-381. Global Issues In Context. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.
Foley, Robert, and Clive Gamble. Philosophical Transactions: Biological
Sciences. London: The Royal Society, 2009. Print. Vol. 364 of The
Evolution of Society.
Jones, S.R.H. "Technology, Transaction Costs, and the Transition to Factory
Production in the British Silk Industry, 1700-1870." The Journal of
Economic History 47.1 (1987): 76-78. Print.
Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party: Bourgeois and
Proletarians. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1969. Vol. 1 of Marx/
Engels Selected Works. www.Marxists.org. Web. 18 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf>.
McLamb, Eric. "The Ecological Impact of the Industrial Revolution."
Ecology.com. Ecology Communications Group, Inc, 18 Sept. 2011. Web.
17 Apr. 2013. <http://www.ecology.com/2011/09/18/
ecological-impact-industrial-revolution/>.
Montagna, Joseph A. "The Industrial Revolution." www.Yale.edu. Yale-New Haven
Teachers Institute, 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. <http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/
curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.06.x.html#c>.
Ogilvie, Sheilagh, 'Whatever Is, Is Right'? Economic Institutions in Pre-Industrial Europe (Tawney Lecture 2006) (August 2007). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 2066.
Stearns, Peter N. The Industrial Revolution in World History. 4th ed. Boulder:
Westview Press, 2012. Print.
Stiner, Mary C., and Gillian Feeley-Harnik. "Energy and Ecosystems." 2011.
Energy and Ecosystems. Comp. Andrew Shyrock and Daniel Lord Smail.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. 78-102. Print.
Ward, J.R. "The Industrial Revolution and British Imperialism, 1750-1850."
The Economic History Review 47.1 (1994): 44-65. Print.