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Industrial Revolution

First Agricultural Revolution

The first big economic change in history: – from Hunting/Gathering

to Farming– Allowed for

specialization,

cities,

kingdoms,

empires

Then . . . things didn’t change for a long time

Best estimates for human productivity calculate annual per capita GDP fluctuating

between $400 and $559

for seven

thousand years

The Malthusian Trap

Why didn’t things change?

Population increases exponentially while resources increase linearly

The Malthusian TrapWhat does that mean?

Although humanity often invented better ways of feeding and transporting itself, the population would then increase and use up all of the extra resources, leaving everyone in exactly the same place as before

The Malthusian Trap“Here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get

somewhere else, you must run at least twice as

fast as that.”

-- The Red Queen

(Alice in

Wonderland)

WHEN HUMANITY FINALLY LEARNED TO RUN

TWICE AS FAST:

The Industrial Revolution

It changed the world

Annual per capita GDP climbed to more than $6,000 by 2000

It all began . . . in England

Woman working a Hargreaves’ Spinning Jenny

Why England?Reason #1: Enclosures

Process of fencing in land that had belonged to everybody (“the commons”) for the use of one wealthy individual

Large, regular enclosure movement fields

Effects of Enclosure:

1. More efficient use of land and new agricultural techniques fed a larger population

2. Left huge numbers of small farmers with no land, starving and homeless. They moved to the cities, which made a large class of desperate people to work in factories.

Why England?Reason #2: Geography

• Large supplies of coal and iron

• Long, irregular coastline with many rivers and natural harbors provided easy transportation

Why England?

Reason #3: Patents

• Based on notion that ideas are not simply something one discovers, but something one owns (a kind of property - remember John Locke?)

• Purpose - gives people the incentive to invent, because no one can steal their ideas

• Democratizes the act of invention - people prosper by their intelligence, not their birth

Why England?

Reason #4: Colonial Empire

Britain aggressively built colonies

– Provided growing market for British manufactured goods

– Provided raw materials (like cotton for the textile

industry)

It all began with cloth (textiles)

Britain had a thriving “cottage industry” for centuries before this, in which rural people manufactured goods in the home

But new inventions changed that . . .

John Kay’s “Flying Shuttle”, 1733

James Hargreaves’ “Spinning Jenny,” 1764

Richard Arkwright: “Pioneer of the Factory System”

The Water Frame, 1771

Samuel Crompton’s “Spinning Mule,” 1779

Edmund Cartwright’s “Power Loom,” 1785

Effects of Textile Machines

• Major historical development: the world’s first large factories were created

• Destroyed cottage industry

• Produced cotton goods that were cheaper - now everyone could afford good clothes

Lack of Power = Poverty

Man behind plow and woman at spinning wheel could employ only horsepower and human muscle in their labor. No matter how hard they worked, they could not produce very much.

The Problem of Energy

If water had remained only source of power, industry would have been cut short

BUT . . . this would change

Breakthrough: The Steam Engine

• The Industrial Revolution’s most fundamental advance in technology

• For the first time in history, humanity had almost unlimited power at its disposal

James Watt’s Steam Engine, 1769

Steam Tractor

Robert Fulton’s Steamship, 1807

George Stevenson’s Steam Locomotive, Rocket

• Steam power was made possible with coal, to heat the water

• Huge increase in coal production and mines went deeper and deeper

MigrationThe Industrial Revolution created mass movements of people, as people moved from the countryside into cities looking for work. This led to huge numbers crammed into tenement neighbor-

hoods.

Urbanization• New districts of identical rows of houses built

quickly and cheaply to house factory and foundry workers in rapidly growing industrial towns

• Much poor quality housing, densely packed, with little sunlight and few amenities

Industrial Staffordshire

Water Pollution• Rivers and canals polluted by sewage and

industrial waste

• Cholera and typhoid killed many poor people who used water from canals and rivers for cleaning and cooking

Air Pollution• Dense fogs of soot and noxious waste gases

covered towns built around iron and steel works

• Increased pneumonic diseases and smog episodes begin killing residents of large cities like London.

The Peppered Moth

Industrialization produced smoke which killed lichens growing on trees and blackened their bark. Pale-colored moths which had been well camouflaged before when they rested on

tree trunks became very conspicuous and were eaten by birds. Rare dark moths, which had been conspicuous

before, were now well camouflaged in the black background. As birds switched from eating mainly dark moths to mainly pale moths, the most common moth color changed from pale to dark.

Noise Pollution• Disruption for people living around iron works

and cotton mills from noisy steam- or water-powered machines running day and night

• Deafness common among

industrial workers

and inhabitants of industrial towns

Child Labor

• Before the Industrial Revolution:– Children had always worked, but it was at home

or on farm– Cottage workers did

not want to go to factories

• Long, monotonous hours

• Few breaks

Child Labor

At first, factories employed pauper children - exploited orphans who had no say and were badly treated

Child Labor

Families would try to work in mills and mines together

Later, families were split up and overseers would discipline

children

Parents feared to protest

Child Labor

• Reforms– Factory Act of 1833

• Limited workday for kids 9-13 to 8 hours

• Limited workday for kids 14-18 to 12 hours

• Children under nine enrolled in school

– Child Labor began to decline