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Industrial Britain 1750-
Introduction
The industrialization of Britain during the period 1750-1850 is arguably one of the most significant events in history. Almost overnight, a tide of change swept away the old order and altered the whole world forever. But how are we to read this crucial period of British history which was punctuated with so many social, economic and political changes? There was certainly tremendous progress, economically, socially and politically speaking. The stream of inventions and innovations in physics, chemistry and mechanics led to unprecedented increases in life expectancy. However, Britain’s transition from a rural society to a complex industrialized urban nation was far from trouble-free. Under the impact of the industrial revolution, Britain was completely transformed and the hegemony of its landed oligarchy was partly broken. Both wealth and power floated to new industrial, commercial and professional middle classes. Meanwhile, the urgent needs of industry led to the creation of a new urban social class, that of the industrial workers. Some major theoretical models, including Marxism, are often used to explain this transition. But the applicability of these theories to the historical reality of British industrialization remains beset with difficulties. Our main concern in this course is, first, to examine the complexities of the changes experienced, second, to explore the inter-relationship between economic development, social order and class structure, and third, to explain the implications of economic change for the decline of traditional paternalism and the emergence of new values. The impact of the Fren Revolution on the political system at work will also be examined. Thus, we will explore together a number of parliamentary reform acts, the development of modern political parties and the advent of mass democracy. We will also examine the shift in the role of government from purely laissez-faire functions to increasingly interventionist responsibilities especially in the areas of social welfare and economic management. By the end of the course, successful students are expected to have the following abilities: ● Explain the origins and nature of the Industrial Revolution and the profound changes it imposed on the British society ; ● Explore, contrast and compare the advantages and disadvantages of the domestic and factory systems ; ● Evaluate the role economics played throughout the whole period; ● Critically appreciate the descriptive amounts of working-class life; ● Assess the impact of social policy on the working class; ● Reflect critically upon the democratization of British political life.
On the other hand, students are required to: ● Explore and analyze a series of selected readings before their discussion in class. ● Compose a short essay on the impact of industrialization on democratization
landowners, nobility. And in England in 1700, one contemporary estimated that of a total population of 5.3 million people, nearly 25% were living in poverty (Cipolla 13). Most people in pre industrial England lived on a subsistence level with little or no savings. If they were cursed with a stroke of bad luck that caused economic hardship, they could not rely on social safety nets to save them from resorting to begging. Most peasants struggled simply to meet the basic needs of their families. In England between the 15th and 18th centuries, 70 to 80% of household income went to buying food. And so, for the person living in pre-industrial times, buying even one piece of clothing was a complete luxury. And yet, society typically depended on peasants for food and taxes (a percentage of personal income paid to the nobles or the government). Though they controlled a majority of the wealth in Europe in the form of land, the clergy and the nobility were usually not taxed, putting a further burden on peasants and craftsmen.
Pre-industrial Britain
Britain was not a large nation by today’s standards, in the first half of the 18th century. The population of England and Wales was about 6 million and grew very little until the 1740s. Scotland had 1.25 million in 1750. The main reason for that was that the death rate was high. Britain was based on Feudalism/Feudal system. It was predominantly rural society: only 20 percent of people lived or worked in towns. Most people resided in small, rural communities where their daily life revolved around farming, living under a feudal system of property rights with its law of primogeniture.
I. Social Structure of Pre-Industrial Britain
Britain was based on social hierarchy; not based on income but rather on social rank. Social Class Components Status/Position Relationship 1- Small Aristocratic Elite at the top Landlords/land- owners: Barons, Dukes/noblemen/a rchbishops Their status and wealth came from both their noble birth (hereditary title) and land ownership. They controlled both economic and political system ruling class, largely free from labouring: one profession suited for them: government ⇒ Hegemony of the landed oligarchy (small body of men who have the supreme power of state) -Many of them, following the Based on Feudal Prestige , paternalism, reverence to the noblemen. ⇒ Patriarchal idea of social hierarchical relations was deeply rooted in people’s minds: aristocratic privilege.
Agrarian Revolution, became capitalist farmers who invested in business ⇒ Vertical relationship: the lower class depended on the paternal care of the master for survival. 2- The Gentry -Landowners at the local level next below the nobility in position and birth. They were the real rulers of the countryside, monopolizing economic and political powers through their ownership of the land and being members of Parliament. 3- Tenant farmers and Tradesmen Peasant small holders -Tradesmen: lawyers, merchants, shopkeepers They rent land from big owners in return for part of the output Made money by working 4- Labouring Class Craftsmen/artisans At the bottom of the hierarchy
II. Domestic System
Britain was reliant on “cottage industry” (small dwelling, house in the countryside) ⇒ old/traditional system: families often lived and worked in the house, not a lot of surplus labour available for industry ⇒ industries were very small run out of people’s houses, products were made by hand, everything powered by hand, animals, windmills and waterwheels ⇒ slow and small scale production of products like textiles, clothing, food, etc. The open-field system of farming was widespread: three quarters of the British people depended on land. Despite being a mainly productive farmland, there was a web of merchant towns related to London as the center of prosperous craft activity and mercantile capital.
III. Political Life
- The British Parliament in London legislated for all four nations: dominated by the aristocratic elite, who with the monarch determined state policy.
- The right to vote was only limited to property holders (landowners) and those who did not receive poor relief and they generally voted according to the wishes of the dominant landowners ⇒ The Lords retained much power and controlled the nomination of ministers and seats in the House of Commons.
would produce better barley and wheat the following year (it had been discovered that turnip and clover liberate nitrogen in the soil rather than taking it). In winter months, turnips would be livestock. This meant that it was no longer necessary for farmers to slaughter their animals before winter. Improvements in farming had a dramatic social and economic impact in Britain. Now, it took fewer people to produce more food. By the end of the 18th century, farming had been transformed from primarily satisfying basic food and clothing of the village community into a commercial opportunity to increase food surplus into emerging local and foreign markets. After these inventions, the system moved from self-sufficient to a system based on business (the land became a source of fortune).
The Agrarian Revolution
Lecture 1: Basic forces for change This lecture will examine the nature of the drastic changes brought to the British countryside and their impact on British agriculture. During the second half of the 18th century, British agriculture was revolutionized and the British countryside completely transformed. Two basic forces accounted for this change: population growth , and an important increase in the agricultural output to meet the rising demand for food. This increase in the output is mainly due to an improved efficiency in working the land. Three factors made this efficiency possible:
- The suppression of open fields by enclosed ones
- The introduction of new methods of farming
- The invention of new machines
1. The enclosure of lands
Enclosure as a movement, had existed for many centuries. Indeed, long before the 18th century, farmers had enclosed many open fields by hedging their lands. Many of them did so in order to convert land to pasture. However, until the mid-18th century, about two-thirds of British land was still under the open-field system. Within each open field, a strip of land was set aside as ‘common land’ for the whole village community. Common lands were usually used as pasture and forests. Starting from the mid-18th century, the process was accelerated with the passage of about 4.000 Enclosure Acts (a separate Act for each village). The result was a turning point in the history of the country. Over 3 million acres of open fields and common lands disappeared. “The open field system had many defects”:
- It could not produce enough food for the rising population.
- It entailed green waste of land since one-third of the land was usually fallow.
- It hampered crop experimentation because the system depended on cooperative ploughing and harvest. To try new methods, farmers had to work land individually.
- It was of little use to animal breeding. There were no hedges to give cattle shelter. ⇒ Consequently, the diseased mingled freely with the rest. Besides, winter food (root crops and grass was insufficient. Hence, the landlords’ decisions to enclose each man’s holdings. The open fields gave place to compact farms and land became intensively exploited and easily controlled. The cultivated areas increased by eliminating commons and wastes. All this led to an important increase in the output. By the end of our period, the production of wheat increased so much that white bread became the staple diet even for the poor.
Lecture 2: From a self-sufficient way of life into a big business This lecture will focus on the impact of the agrarian revolution on the capitalist development of British agriculture. ● Thanks to the progressive commercialization of the countryside, the pressure on the land increased, resulting in an important increase in the output. From 13 million quarters in 1700, the total corn output rose to 29 million by 1800, while the number of sheep and goats doubled. As a result, the cost of food dropped and the growing population could now be fed better than before. ● The agrarian revolution resulted in a more sufficient use of the land. Large compact farms using machines and scientific methods began to dominate British agriculture, leading to a vital change in British farming from a self-sufficient way of life into a big business. Indeed, many landowners made huge profits by producing for the market. They became, as a matter of fact, capitalist farmers. ● The main stimulus to the agricultural revolution came from the desire of landowners and capitalist farmers to make profits by producing for the market. In fact, what stimulated landowners into investing huge sums of money in intensive agriculture was not necessarily to improve the living standards of those who grew it. When their profits on corn got down after the end of the French Wars (1793-1815), thanks to the British renewal of importation of cheap grains from Europe, they immediately reacted by pressing Parliament to pass a series of Acts called Corn Laws, forbidding the importation of foreign grains. The aim behind the passage of such laws was to keep domestic corn prices high and, thus, ensure continued profitability. These regulations, which were designed to maintain food prices as high as possible, caused great distress to the population. Prices went up and the cost of food increased. Both consumers and labourers were affected. ● The investment of capital for intensive agriculture brought great wealth to the landowners and capitalist farmers to whom about four-fifths of the open fields belonged. This made many historians argue that thanks to the agricultural revolution, the eighteenth century gentry became a superbly successful and self-confident capitalist class. ● The introduction of mechanization in farming, together with the hedging of lands are considered by many historians as one of the major causes of this change in the pace and scale of production. ● Many landowners made big fortunes by either selling or renting their lands to the factory owners and businessmen who were in great need for land to build factories and railway roads, and to exploit new mines. By the end of our period, landrents rose by 80 percent.
Lecture 3: Capitalist farming and class structure This lecture will discuss the impact of the commercialization of the British countryside on the traditional social order and class structure. ● The transition from the open field system to enclosure led to the disappearance of the large class of peasant smallholders. With the allotment of land in compact holdings during the enclosure of villages, each one of them was then given a single piece of property in proportion to the amount he owned under the open field system. But with the enforcement of lords’ legal right to the common lands, they were prevented from their right to the commons. This had catastrophic consequences for many families, for it prevented them from the right to hunt, pick up fuel, and graze their cattle on the commons. The small plots they were given could not be used for grazing. Besides, most of them were not able to pay for the fencing of their properties. Besides, they could not afford the high costs of fertilizers. Therefore, many of them were forced to sell their plots to the big landowners and became either day-labourers or unemployed. ● Yet, the most unfortunate of all were the landless labourers who didn’t own any land under the open field system. The enclosing of fields brought a lot of suffering to these people and their families. They lost their rights to the commonlands which were, most often, their livelihood. Besides, with the mechanization of the countryside and the dropping of food prices, many of them lost their jobs as wage-labourers, many others had their wages cute, and the majority moved to the cities. To force the labourers out of their villages, a New Poor Law was passed in 1834 preventing the majority of them from any form of relief unless they entered workhouses. Before the passage of this law, a system of relief for the paupers, called the Speenhamland system , was in force in all the British parishes. The system was designed to cope with the high prices of food caused by the French Wars and famine. It supplemented the incomes of labourers with large families and whose livelihoods were insufficient. Under the pretext that the Speenhamland system encouraged laziness and hindered the free mobility of labourers, the British Parliament, which was dominated by the landlords, decided in 1834 to abolish it. According to the new law, relief would be provided only inside workhouses, which had to be more miserable than the life of the poor labourer outside. It is clear that the aim behind the passage of this law was to discourage the poor labourers from entering workhouses and, thus, from receiving relief. The New Poor Law of 1834 would eventually force large numbers of them to move to the newly-industrialized towns in search for new job opportunities. Many of them turned into factory workers.
