Industrial Revolution

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Industrial Revolution

• I Transformation
• II Explanations
• III Interpretations

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Ia. A Great Material Transformation

• from the steam engine (James Watts 1765) to
  electricity
• capital liquidity and mobility (stock company)
• agricultural reform and population growth
• migration
• formation of the working class

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Ib. Material Result
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Ic. Intellectual TransformationJohn Locke
(1632-1704)

• By the natural and unalterable state of things in
  this world, the greatest part of mankind, who are
  given up to labour, and enslaved to the necessity
  of their mean condition, ... should not be more
  knowing in the variety of things done in the
  world than a packhorse.

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Id. Intellectual TransformationAdam Smith
(1723-1790)

• What are the common wages of labour, depends
  every where upon the contract ... The workmen
  desire to get as much, the masters to give as
  little as possible... It is not, however,
  difficult to foresee which of the two ... have
  the advantage... the masters, being fewer in
  number, can combine much more easily and the
  law... does not prohibit their combinations,
  while it prohobits those of the workmen

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Ie. Empirical ObservationFriedrich Engels
Condition of the Working Class 1845

• In the coal and iron mines... children of four,
  five, and seven years are employed. ... For
  watching the doors the smallest children are
  usually employed, who thus pass twelve hours
  daily, in the dark, alone, sitting usually in
  damp passages... The transport of coal and
  iron-stone, on the other hand, is very hard
  labour, the stuff being shoved in large tubs,
  without wheels, over the uneven floor of the mine
  ... For this more wearing labour, therefore,
  older children and half-grown girls are employed.
  One man or two boys per tub are employed,
  according to circumstances and, if two boys, one
  pushes and the other pulls.... The usual
  working-day is eleven to twelve hours...and
  double time is frequent, when all the employees
  are at work below ground twenty-four, and even
  thirty-six hours at a stretch. Set times for
  meals are almost unknown, so that these people
  eat when hunger and time permit....

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ContinuedCondition of the Working Class 1845

• The coal would be too expensive if a part of the
  adjacent sand and clay were removed so the mine
  owners permit only the seams to be worked
  whereby the passages which elsewhere are four or
  five feet high and more are here kept so low that
  to stand upright in them is not to be thought of.
  The working-man lies on his side and loosens the
  coal with his pick... The women and children who
  have to transport the coal crawl upon their hands
  and knees, fastened to the tub by a harness and
  chain (which frequently passes between the legs),
  while a man behind pushes with hands and head.

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II. Explanations Politics - Economics - Society

• bourgeois revolution (political empowerment)
• capital accumulation and productivity (M - C - M
  )
• individualization and competition

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III Interpretations

• - conservatism
• prescriptions (Burke)
• liberalism
• protection (Tocqueville)
• socialism
• exploitation (Marx)