The Making of Industrial Society
Chapter 29
Intro: Patterns of Industrialization
• Economic transformation: agrarian, handicraftcentered  industry, machine manufacturing
• Technological and organizational changes
Foundations of Industrialization
• Mid-1700s preindustrial conditions:
– high agricultural production
– Large population (= labor)
– Occupational specialization
– Navigable rivers and canals
– Cities with financial institutions and people with
capital to invest
– Access to and use of natural resources
• First: Great Britain
Natural Resources and Raw Materials
• Needed fuel source: wood use caused
deforestation
– Switched to coal -> iron prod., steam engines
• Needed land to produce raw materials
– Depended on Americas for cotton, sugar, etc.
(plantation economies also created markets for
European goods)
Cotton Textiles
• Demand for Indian cotton textiles (over wool) was
increasing -> Parliament passed the Calico Acts to
try to stop imports
• Demand increased -> British cotton textiles industry
• Had to speed up production (spinning and weaving)
-> inventions (flying shuttle, mule, power loom, and
esp. the steam engine)
Iron and Steel
• 1700s: Benefitted from new technology and led to
more mechanization
– By using coke (instead of coal) more iron was produced
and prices dropped
– Used in machinery, but also bridges, buildings, ships, etc.
• 1800s: steel (harder and stronger, but more
expensive)
– By late 1800s: steel had
become cheaper to make
and replaced iron
Transportation
• Steam engines plus iron/steel -> improvements in
transportation technology
• Steam-powered locomotive, steamships
• -> lowered transp. costs, linked remote areas,
carrying cargo and passengers, and encouraged
more industrialization
The Factory System
• Early modern: putting-out (cottage industry)
• 1600s-1700s: proto-factories (larger, wind or
water power)
• Late 1700s: factories (British textile industry)
– Bigger for machinery and workers
– Relied on cheap labor and task-orientated division of
labor
– Required close supervision
and discipline
Factory Working Conditions
• Led to development of two classes:
• Owner class: owned capital which financed
equipment and machinery
• Worker class: sold their labor for wages, any artisanal
skills became obsolete, work was rote and boring,
disconnect between labor and product of labor
– Very different from rural farm life: nature’s schedule to
clocks and machines’ pace
– Supervisors stressed discipline
and pace and punishments for slow work
– No concern for safety
Industrial Protest
• Some protested: Luddites, 1811-16
– Handicraft workers
– Destroyed machinery
– Gained popular support
– Some hanged by the government
The Early Spread of Industrialization
• British government tried to keep industrialism
from spreading: forbade export of machines,
technology, skilled workers
• Didn’t work; industrialization spread to western
Europe and North
America (sometimes
through bribery,
smuggling, and
kidnapping)
Industrialization in Western Europe
• By mid-1800s: France, Germany, and Belgium
• Aided by French Rev. and Napoleonic wars which had
abolished trade barriers and dismantled guilds)
– Belgium: coal, iron, textiles, glass, armaments
– France: textiles and metallurgical industries
(improvements -> railroad boom -> economic
development)
– Germany (slower, due to disunity): coal and iron ->
railroads
• Post-unification: gov’t sponsored industry (heavy industry and big
businesses)
Industrialization in North America
• U.S. had land and resources, but few laborers or
capital -> got both from Europe
• 1820s: lured British textile workers to NE factories
(using southern cotton)
• 1870s: iron and steel
• By 1900: U.S. is economic
powerhouse (once
transportation
costs decreased)
Industrial Capitalism
• Mass production: interchangeable parts, assembly
line -> increase in productivity and decrease in prices
• Big business: using model of joint-stock companies,
businesses formed so individuals could invest
• The Corporation: by late 1800s, controlled most
businesses requiring large investments of land, labor,
or machinery
– Also, investment banks, brokerage
firms to serve industrial capitalists
Industrial Capitalism (cont.)
• Some corporations tried to eliminate competition
– Monopoly: when one company is the only supplier of a
specific commodity
– Trust: business formed to create monopoly (may form
vertically or horizontally)
– Cartel: small group of businesses who agree to fix prices,
regulate production
• Some governments outlawed
these practices by the end of
the 1800s (remember, capitalism
requires competition!)
Intro: Industrial Society
• Material benefits: inexpensive manufactured
products, increased standard of living, and
increasing population
• Also, social changes: migration (internal and
external), new social classes, new patterns of
family and work life
• Calls for reform, esp. socialism
Industrial Demographics
• Efficient production -> affordable goods ->
increasing material standard of living
– E.g., clothing – people could afford more than 1 outfit
(even underwear!)
– E.g., food – as transportation costs decreased, food
became more affordable
– E.g., other items became more available and
attainable: furniture, porcelain, decorative items
Industrial Demographics (cont.)
• Changing patterns of fertility and mortality
• Pre-indust. rev.: high fertility and high mortality =
little change
• Early indust. rev.: high fertility and lower mortality
(due to medicine/vaccines/sanitation/ nutrition) =
population increase
• Later indust. rev.: low fertility (due to birth control)
and low mortality = even population
– Birth control: male condom (1600s: animal intestines,
1800s: latex); because child cost more in industrial society
and more would survive
Urbanization and Migration
• Many migrated from the county-side to urban areas
for work
• Urban Environment: lots of water and air pollution
form factories, plus lack of sanitation in crowded
cities -> disease
– Wealthy lived in growing suburbs
– working poor lived in shoddy housing in city centers, esp.
overcrowded tenements
– By late 1800s: gov’ts were trying to
fix problems with municipal water
supplies, sewer systems, building
codes, parks and recreational facilities
Transcontinental Migration
• Population growth in Europe led to migration to
U.S. (=population growth)
• Many expected to return (some did, most didn’t)
– Early 1800s: from Britain
– Mid-1800s: Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia
– Late 1800s: eastern and southern Europe
• For various political, social, and/or economic
reasons
• Labor  U.S. industrialization
Industry and Society: Changes in Social
Structure
• New industrialist/business person class
overshadowed the traditional aristocracy
• Middle class: managers, professionals, skilled
employees
• Working class: factory
workers and miners
• Slave class disappeared
Industrial Life
• Family Changes: more distinction between work
and family life, less contact with family
• Upper/Middle Class Work and Play: public/private
dichotomy (male/female), internalized work ethic
(even at home), tried to force middle class values
(work ethic, respectability, morality) on working
classes
• Working Class work and play: popular sports,
gambling, drinking, animal fighting, absenteeism
Women
• Upper/middle class women: expectations as
mothers and wives
• Working class women: earned less, many worked
as domestics, but some in factories/mines (small
hands and fingers)
Child Labor
•
•
•
•
Many worked in industrial jobs
Faced abuse, long hours
Families needed their wages
By 1840, Parliament began passing child labor
laws and eventually outlawed them from working
in factories
• = redefinition of the role of children due to moral
concerns and the need for skilled/educated labor
-> compulsory education
The Socialist Challenge
• Critics of industrialism; wanted to fix economic and
social problems (esp. wealth gap and exploitation of
workers) -> economic equality
• First, through utopian communities: model
communities where everyone would work at what
suited them
– E.g., New Lanark: Scottish mill town, raised wages, built
housing, opened store with fair prices, built schools =
expensive, but made profits
• Impact: cooperative industry, critique of capitalism,
advocacy for education; but, others tried and failed
Marx and Engels
• Changing tactic: organize workers -> equality
• Capitalism -> social problems (capitalists v.
proletariat)
• State-supported competition -> exploitation of
proletariat
– Religion, arts also supported capitalism because it
distracted proletariat
Marx and Engels (cont.)
• Aligned with communists who wanted to abolish
private property and stressed egalitarianism
• Wrote Communist Manifesto: capitalism will end
due to overproduction, under consumption, and
diminishing profits
– Proletariat would overthrow the system in a socialist
revolution -> dictatorship of the proletariat ->
withering away of the state -> egalitarian society
• Support grew: some were revolutionary, or
evolutionary (political parties)
Social Reform
• Socialism influenced gov’ts to address issues: laws
on work hours for children and women
• = state starts to become responsible for social and
economic welfare of its people
• By late 19th century: retirement pensions,
minimum wage, insurance, regulation of hours
and conditions
• Trade unions formed to represent workers: sought
higher wages, better conditions; held strikes ->
violence in some cases
Global Effects of Industrialization
• Impact = spread of industrialism (Europe, N.A.,
Japan) + use of raw materials (cotton, rubber, etc)
from pre-indust. Societies
• But, they weren’t in control of export
• Plus, import of cheap manufactured goods form
Europe hurt local economies
Global Effects of Industrialization
• Some areas began to specialize in production and
export + foreign capital + labor-> economic
development -> industrialization
• Other areas that received no capital did not
industrialize
– Exported cash crops on plantations owned by
foreigners -> profits went abroad -> little econ. dev.
International Division of Labor
• Some produced raw materials, while others
processed and consumed them
• -> increasing world trade volume, transportation,
and technology
– Only British, North Americans, and Japanese were
really benefitting