The Industrial Revolution



The Industrial Revolution

Day 1: Factory System

Name: __________________________ Date__________ Period _________

Factory system

Idea / Movement

The factory system replaced cottage industry with centralized large-scale production in one location. The heart of the factory was a single source of power that drove and synchronized a system of specialized machines. The first factories were often close to a source of water power. The development of the steam engine accelerated the concentration of production in factories and left them free to be located near raw materials.

The first industry that evolved into a continuous process driven by a centralized power source was silk throwing. Between 1718 and 1721, Thomas Lombe erected a mill in Derby, England. Nevertheless, the silk industry was slow to adopt the factory system. In 1835, there were only about 1,750 power looms, compared to a total of 40,000 looms in Britain. At the turn of the 19th century, the textile industry became highly mechanized. Cotton textile mills, powered by steam engines, began to replace hand-loom weavers, creating the first signs of the social problems associated with industrialization.

Various theories have been put forward to account for the rise of the factory system. In the textile industry, technological advances had developed machines driven by water. Rotary power from steam engines became available in the 1780s. Also, the factory system reduced the transportation cost associated with the putting-out system (workers producing goods in their homes) and aided in the production of a standardized product.

One group of theories attributed the development of the factory system to nontechnological reasons, citing the need to discipline factory workers who were prone to work less as wages increased. One writer in 1704 observed, "[T]here is nothing more frequent than for an Englishman to work until he has got his pocket full of money, and then to go and be idle, or perhaps drunk, till 'tis al gone." Another writer, in 1774, commented that "everyone but an idiot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor or they will never be industrious." The factory system was a means of maintaining discipline over workers whose income allowed them to afford more leisure.

The factory system also increased worker productivity by disciplining workers in the use of time. It was said that Richard Arkwright, one of the pioneers of the factory system, "had to train his work people to a precision and industry altogether unknown before, against which their listless and restless habits rose in continued rebellion." Workers may have resented the loss of control over their lives. They faced fines, sometimes amounting to a good portion of a day's pay, if they were not at their station when the bell sounded the beginning of a shift. At one mill, it was a rule that "any person found from the necessary place of work, except for necessary purposes, or talking with anyone out of their own Ally, will be fined 2d for each offense." Some of the early factories used family units in the factory to maintain discipline. Children worked, with parents in supervisory situations. Sometimes the parent was paid on a piecemeal basis.

During the 19th century, the plight of the factory workers, many of whom were women and children, drew protest from social reformers. The British Parliament passed several factory acts to improve the conditions of the workers. Karl Marx devoted a good bit of space to describing the ill effects of the factory system in Das Kapital. In the words of Marx, "Every organ of sense is injured in an equal degree by the artificial elevation of the temperature, by the dust-laden atmosphere, by the deafening noise, not to mention danger to life and limb among the thickly crowded machinery, which, with the regularity of the seasons, issues the list of killed and wounded in the industrial battle."

The eight-hour day, the abolition of child labor, and government regulation of the work environment improved the conditions of factory workers significantly in the 20th century.

Questions on next page…

1.) What is the factory system?

2.) What was the 1st industry to revolutionize their industry?

3.) Explain the working conditions in the factories.

4.) Who is Karl Marx?

Industrial Revolution

Homework Day 2- Child Labor

Name:___________________________ Date:_________________ Period ___

Child labor

Idea / Movement

Child labor has been a fact of life probably since the beginning of time. Children often help with family agricultural, craft, or domestic duties. In cottage industries, children as young as five often help with small chores, and by 12, those children are often assisting in valuable tasks. Furthermore, in the past, apprenticeship for various trades normally started between the age of 13 and 15 years. In fact, work often builds self-esteem, promotes a sense of community, and socially rewards the child through wages. Unfortunately, not all child labor is beneficial to children's health. Indeed, some child labor is extremely exploitative.

When does child labor become exploitative? In 1986, the UNICEF Executive Board Paper laid out eight main criteria to define exploitative child labor: 1) full-time work at too early an age; 2) work hours that are too long; 3) work resulting in excessive physical, social, and psychological strains on the child; 4) work on the streets in unhealthy and dangerous conditions; 5) work inadequately remunerated; 6) work that demands too much responsibility too early; 7) work that does not facilitate the psychological and social development of the child; and 8) work that inhibits the child's self-esteem.

The first widespread instance of exploitative child labor occurred during the Industrial Revolution. In 1835, there were more than 56,000 children under the age of 13 working in the textile factories in the United Kingdom alone. That was 16% of the British workforce. Furthermore, if 13 and 14 year olds were included in those statistics, children made up 20% of the British work force that year. By 1874, that number increased substantially. In just England and Wales, 122,000 children between the ages of 10 and 13 worked in textile factories.

The children working in textile factories lived and worked under the same deplorable conditions as the adults. Employers often chose children for their speed, manual dexterity, suppleness, and willingness to work long hours for little pay. Children as young as five years old worked long hours (often more than 12 hours per day) in crowded, dimly lit, poorly ventilated factories for a small percentage of the adult wage.

Child labor within textile factories came to symbolize the evils of the Industrial Revolution, and thus laws protecting working children in those factories became the first focus of reform. In the United Kingdom in May 1833, the Factory Inquiry Commission investigated such child employment. That same year, the Factory Act (1833) (also known as Althorp's Act) limited the employment of children to daytime hours in all textile factories run by steam and water. Further, the act limited the workday to nine hours per day and 48 hours per week for children between the ages of nine and 12 years. In 1847, the Ten Hour Bill limited the workday to 10 hours per day and 58 hours per week for all children under the age of 18 years.

Unfortunately, that legislation did not include those children working in non-textile industries like mining, machinery making, and pottery making. More than 10% of the work force involved in non-textile industries were children. Legislation protecting the children working in non-textile industries was not enacted until 1867, when the Factory Act of 1867 and the Workshop Regulation Act of 1867 extended the child labor laws to all factories and workshops.

During the Industrial Revolution, most nations used child labor to increase economic success. Child labor legislation varied slightly from country to country both in timing and amount of protection. In France, for example, child labor legislation was passed in 1841. Unfortunately, that law was poorly enforced. More effective legislation was enacted in France in 1874. The new law held that children under the age of 12 could not work in mines and other industries. Furthermore, workdays were limited to 12 hours per day for children 12 to 16 years of age. Additionally, night work was prohibited to those people under the age of 21 years. Moreover, a special inspectorate was established to enforce the legislation.

Germany also had problems enforcing early child labor legislation. A statute enacted on May 16, 1853 stated that 12 years was the minimum age of workers in industry. That law also held that children between the ages of 12 and 14 could work a maximum of six hours per day. Moreover, for those children, there was a mandatory three hours of schooling per day. Three inspectors were appointed to enforce the legislation, but the law was not consistently enforced throughout Germany. The Industrial Code of 1891 furthered the aim of consistent enforcement and increased the minimum age of workers to 13 years.

Conversely, in Japan, child labor legislation was slow to appear. The first Factory Act was passed in 1911. That legislation established a minimum working age of 12 years, workday limits of 12 hours for those under the age of 16 years, and limited night work for those over 16 years of age. However, it took until 1916 before the law was finally implemented.

In the United States, labor activists fought child labor legislation in the hope of expanding the legislative reforms to all factory workers. Historians estimate that in 1900, one in six children was employed full time in the United States—more than 1,750,000 children. One of the most effective child labor movements in the United States was the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), established in April 1904. Initially, that committee focused on reform at the state level. By 1899, 28 states had some kind of child labor legislation. However, by 1912, the NCLC had concluded that national legislation was needed to end child labor in the United States.

1.) When did child labor start?

2.) How many criteria does UNICEF identify as exploitative child labor?

3.) How many children worked in England & Wales during the Industrial Revolution?

4.) List some of the laws that tried to end child labor.

5.) Name the countries that had child labor.

6.) How many children worked in the U.S.?

Industrial Revolution

Day 3- Capitalism vs. Marxism

Name:__________________________________ Date:_________________ Period #___

Put the following ideas in either the Capitalists Box or Marxism Box

- all great movements in history the result of an economic class struggle

- gov’t should not interfere in the economy

- progress results when individuals follow their own self-interest

- workers are exploited by employers

- the “haves” taken advantage of the “have nots”

- businesses follow their own self-interest when they complete w/ one another for the

consumer’s money

- the Industrial Revolution intensified the class struggle

- each producer tires to provide goods & services that are better & less expensive than

those of competitors

- market economy aims to produce the best products & the lowest prices

- the capitalist system will eventually destroy itself. The state will wither away as a

classless society develops

- consumers compete w/one another to purchase the best goods at the lowest prices

- the labor of workers creates profit for employers

|Capitalism Ideas/ Adam Smith |Marxism Ideas/ Karl Marx |

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