Industrial Revolution II
New Developments in Industrial Society and Economy

  1. New Sources of Energy

    1. Pre-industrial society depended on animals, humans, wind, water, and wood for power

    2. Industrial society moves to fossil fuels - coal, oil, gas

    3. Currently, per capita energy use is 5-10 times higher than in pre-industrial society

  2. Rise of the Factory

    1. Factories not unknown before 1700, but most production on cottage, small shop, or piece work level

    2. Modern factory develops in stages

      1. Primary dependence on machines - Richard Arkwright creates factories using power-driven textile machines in 1770s and '80s

      2. Interchangeable parts - mid-19th century

      3. Assembly line - Henry Ford, 1910s

  3. Financing

    1. Hundreds of small private banks appear in the English Midlands in 18th and 19th century to provide capital

    2. Interest rates low in 17th and 18th century, allowing for cheap investment capital

    3. London Stock Exchange opens in 1773

  4. Social Transformation

    1. Labor force changes from predominantly rural and agricultural to urban and industrial

    2. Nature of work changes dramatically

      1. Work life becomes radically separated from home life

      2. Workers work as individuals, not as part of a family

      3. Most workers find themselves with a boss for the first time

      4. The clock and the rhythm of machines replaces the rhythms of nature as governor of the worker's time

      5. Monotony of work, factory discipline, and low wages made factory life hated by many

      6. Workers move into urban environments

        1. Britain becomes 50% urban by 1850

        2. urbanization led to rapid, unplanned growth

        3. sanitation and housing conditions could not keep up with the growth

    3. Severe exploitation of labor a feature of early industrialization

      1. 2/3 of Arkwright's workers were children

      2. Parliamentary Act of 179 made unionization illegal

      3. Comparable restrictions on businesses forming organizations and price fixing were not enforced

      4. Increases in profit and production did not produce comparable increases in wages

      5. Labor productivity doubled in 1830-1850 alone, but wages changed little in 19th century

  5. Ideology

    1. Mercantilist capitalism, which emphasized state control to maximize government treasuries, was dominate in early modern period

    2. Free-market capitalism, emphasizing laissez-faire policies, becomes dominant in 19th century

    3. Basic principles of free market capitalism laid out by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (1776)

    4. New ideologies also appeared that critiqued free-market capitalism and industrial society

      1. Labor strife produced opposition to free-market capitalism, notable with Karl Marx, Das Kapital (1867)

      2. Romanticism rejected industrial society and values, emphasizing nature, family life, and emotion instead