First Industrial Revolution

Economic History 1st Essay

First industrial revolution

The first industrial revolution began in Great Britain as a result of an agricultural and technological revolution. It took place from 1750 to 1850. This industrial revolution could not happen without the technological innovation and investment on transport. In fact, it is quite hard to think about the huge economic growth in Britainwithout talking about the spinning innovation and obviously the creation of the steam machine
The mechanization of working process caused a huge exodus from the countryside to the new industrialized cities. There was a shift away rural life based on traditional agriculture towards an urban life that demands an increasing number of people for the new industry requirements. Differences betweenregions on the same country started to be higher. This was because of social changes related with life expectancy, differences between rural and industrial lifestyle and the social changes that were drastically affecting factors such as marriage, birth and death rates. This mass migration affected towns like Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester which become working cities. It is estimated that in 170017% of the British population resided in urban areas, this figure had risen to 25.5% by 1800. City growth is one such problem, unemployment underemployment and the failure to absorb the huge flood of rural emigrants into industrial areas. The incessant arrived of newcomers made extremely difficult for municipal planners to improve facilities and basic services. Migrants lived in overcrowdedprimitive houses with no social services. The increasing number population in cities caused an enormous magnification of pollutions levels which lowered the quality of environment in industrial areas. The transition to industrialization was not without difficulty. Social movements like a group of English workers known as Luddites formed to protest against industrialisation and sometimes sabotagedfactories.
A new kind of work had appeared, workers conditions in the new factories were really harsh, employers had to deal unprotected with dangerous materials in bad conditions for a lot of hours earning ridiculous wages.  The employment of women and children was commonplace and desired, for they were paid lower wages than their male workmate. Changes in the relative wage levels of broadoccupational groupings were not so marked as regional variations over the period 1770-1850. Agricultural wages had always been low; they grew more slowly than average, but not by much, because the rapid rise of northern agricultural wages counteracted the depressing experience of the south. The quickest growth, but again not by a large margin, was in transport and building wages. Wages in mining andmanufacturing grew by slightly more than the average.
Industries such as the cotton trade were particularly hard for workers. That was because of the kind of labour using steam engines the workplace had to be really hot. It was also profitable to employ children to work, because they were cheaper than adults. They were especially useful at crawling under machines to clear up fallen cotton thread andtying together loose ends. No factory manager would find himself blamed for employing underage children, as many children themselves did not know their age. The working time was not regulated until 1833 with the Factory Act which was an attempt to control a regular working day in a textile manufacture.
From the 1840s or earlier, the harmful effects of industrialisation started such as the ill-healthand poor housing endured by many workers. This theme was taken up by historians and became along debate between two schools of thought: one, characterized as the pessimistic, consisting of those who agreed with the contemporary analysis and thought that industrialisation was negative or only weakly positive, for living standards; the other, the optimistic, consisting of those who thought the...