Industrial Revolution Essay - 2,047 words

Industrial Revolution The most influential, significant transformation of human culture since the agriculture was founded eight or ten thousand years ago, was the industrial revolution of eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe and America. The consequences of this revolution would change irreversibly human labor, consumption, family structure, social structure, and even the very soul and thoughts of the individual. This revolution involved more than technology; to be sure, there had been industrial "revolutions" throughout European history and non-European history. The industrial revolution was really dramatic in the way it changed peoples everyday lives. It changed the way people worked. Many were forced to leave farms to work in factories with the help of new machines that increased the amount of work that could be done.


The industrial revolutions immediate impact was greatest in Europe, but European countries used the natural resources of their colonies and African slave labor to increase Europes wealth. These riches helped to pay for the building railways, factories and cities. European powers such as England, France, Spain, Portugal and Holland used military might to force weaker countries to open up their markets and lands to European companies. Out of all European countries Great Britain appeared to be the first to develop itself as the industrial nation and set the examples for others to follow. After the political revolution, the industrial revolution was inevitably going underway. Such superiority of England was conditioned by several factors. First of all, profits from colonial trade and cottage industries provided a serious capital for investment.


Second, Britain possessed flexible credit card system due to the useful central bank. Third, vast resources of oil iron and coal played its role in the trade. Among other important factors are such as the new transportation system and developing textile industry. The way entrepreneurs used technology is vividly illustrated in the textile production, which was the key industry at the beginning of industrialization. Changes in one industry stimulated significant changes in other industries as well. Factory became a symbol of industrial revolution. As mentioned above, the main innovation made due to the industrialization was introduction of machine power to manufacture.


The introduction of machines led to significant changes and led to absolutely new ways of working on factories, way of living (big cities started to emerge), transport system (cars, trains, and steam ships appeared), and in the family structure (family became a unity of consumption but not production). However, despite all the universally positive sides of the industrialization, there also were negative ones, as not everyone was satisfied with the innovations introduced into the production process. Leeds Woolen Workers Petition of 1786, written by the workers in Leeds, which was the major center of wool production at that time, clearly illustrated the negative mood of the workers as for introduction of the machinery on their factories. The petition was written by several thousands of workers who worked in the wool industry and fully depended on the jobs they had, and was addressed to the Merchants, Clothiers and all such as wish well to the Staple Manufactory of this Nation. [1] As the petition mentions, after the introduction of Scribbling-Machines a great number of well-paid workers before became totally unneeded now, which means they did not have any means for the living any more and were not able to procure a maintenance for their families, and deprived them of the opportunity of bringing up their children to labour. [1] It was quite natural that workers did not want to lose their jobs, but it also was natural that machinery brought significant growth into the British economy, which could not be disregarded.


Three years after the wool workers petition to the merchants appeared in the newspapers, the response to them was written. In 1971, document known as Letter from Leeds Cloth Merchants, 1971, was printed in the newspapers. The document defended the use of machines in manufacture. It was composed and signed by about sixty merchant manufacturers who were interested in the machinery introduction. The first paragraph of the letter clearly describes all the benefits and advantages of machinery comparing to the human labor. The position of merchants was based on several factors, basically economical. At the time both documentsworkers petition and merchants letterwere written, all efforts of the country were directed on reducing prices when exporting goods, which could be reached with an efficient organization of labor.


Machinery became a perfect tool for achieving this goal. They were right in their own way. On the international trade arena Britain had numerous competitors that manufactured the same products having labor cost twice cheaper than in Britain. Thus, the merchants declared, From these Premises, we the undersigned Merchants, think it a Duty we owe to ourselves, to the Town of Leeds, and to the Nation at large, to declare that we will protect and support the free Use of the proposed Improvements in Cloth-Dressing, by every legal Means in our Power; and if after all, contrary to our Expectations, the Introduction of Machinery should for a Time occasion a Scarcity of Work in the Cloth Dressing Trade, we have unanimously agreed to give a Preference to such Workmen as are now settled Inhabitants of this Parish, and who give no Opposition to the present Scheme. Both points of view have solid grounds and make considerable sense. It is for individual to decide what position is more reasonable. However, reasoning in economical scale, the introduction of machinery had a positive and inimitable effect, presenting a process that cannot be stopped once started.


As the industrialization spread, more and more wealthy people emerged in the social structure. After Great Britain took the lead in the industrial development, other countries, including Belgium, France, some German states, and Northern USA, began to follow it. Roughly after 1850 this process spread all over the Europe and far beyond. Andrew Carnegie, poor Scottish immigrant to the USA, is ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

Continue READING the FULL Essay by clicking HERE

Essay Tags: industrial revolution, revolution, manchester, andrew carnegie, merchant

This is an Essay sample / Research paper, you can use it for your research of: Industrial Revolution