The Agricultural Revolution SLMS/10

The Open Field SystemThe Open Field SystemThe Open Field SystemThe Open Field System

•For centuries, British agriculture functioned on the “Open Field System”. This meant that the land outside of small vil-lages was shared, or open to anyone who wished to farm it. •Farming was really a commu-nal effort, as all villagers worked together to harvest food. Land, tools, labor and harvests were shared among all participants because gen-erally, people were too poor to afford all of the tools necessary. •Additionally, there was usually also “common land” outside of villages that was used for grazing farm animals. Anyone could let their animals graze on this land, and this was important because most peas-ant farmers did not have enough land on which to raise animals. This way, even the poorest families could keep a cow or sheep.

The Enclosure ActsThe Enclosure ActsThe Enclosure ActsThe Enclosure Acts

•The Open Field system was effective for subsistence farmers, but it was inefficient in terms of overall production. Britain’s popu-lation began to expand, and they needed to produce more food. •The British Parliament began passing a se-ries of “Enclosure” Acts. The feeling was that larger, privately owned plots of land would be farmed more efficiently and would yield more food for the growing population. •In order to “enclose” land, farmers had to: 1) prove they had some legal ownership to the land 2) enclose their land with fences or hedges 3) pay surveyors to map the land •Large landowners and wealthy people ben-efited most from this process as many small farmers lost their land, or their ability to use the common land.

Inventions & MethodsInventions & MethodsInventions & MethodsInventions & Methods

•Agricultural Production was also changed by inventions and methods. •The Seed Drill Seed Drill Seed Drill Seed Drill by Jethro Tull planted seeds in the soil. •The 4 Field System of Crop Rotation4 Field System of Crop Rotation4 Field System of Crop Rotation4 Field System of Crop Rotation by Townshend rotated cereal crops (wheat, barley) with root & legume crops which re-plenished nitrogen in the soil. All land could be used during the growing season. •New Plows: New Plows: New Plows: New Plows: New iron plows were lighter, stronger & more maneuverable. •In Selective Breeding of Animals Selective Breeding of Animals Selective Breeding of Animals Selective Breeding of Animals by Robert Bakewell, only the best and the biggest ani-mals were bred together. The average size of animals more than doubled in 80 years!

Effects of the RevolutionEffects of the RevolutionEffects of the RevolutionEffects of the Revolution

•Because many small farmers lost their land, they moved to towns and cities looking for employment. These cities and towns ex-panded greatly during the 17th and 18th centuries. This ready supply of labor would be key to industrialization. •The enclosure move-ment and new agricul-tural methods and in-ventions increased the efficiency and variety of food production. As a result, diets became more varied, people were healthier and the population increased.

The Domestic System SLMS/10

Cottage IndustryCottage IndustryCottage IndustryCottage Industry

•Small homes in Britain that were not large estates were often referred to as “cottages”. A cottage was often a single story home, with a central dwelling area. These cottages were almost always found in the countryside or in small villages. •Throughout British history, the peasants who lived in these cot-tages provided England with all domestically made textiles. •Most of the domestically produced textiles were woolen or cotton cloth (the cotton had to be imported because England’s climate was not suitable for growing it). •All of these cottages, together made up the Domestic System. They produced hand-made textiles which were sold to clothiers, who then created clothes. Up until the 1700s, this was a very functional system which did not need to be upgraded.

DevelopmentsDevelopmentsDevelopmentsDevelopments

•New inventions were being created to speed up the production of thread, yarn and cloth. Many of these inven-tions were physically large machines. They could not fit in the small living-room of a cottage, not to mention, most peasants couldn’t afford to buy them. Eventually, large buildings would be constructed to ac-commodate several large machines. •Additionally, many of the new inventions needed a source of running water for power. Few cottages were situated right next to rivers or streams. The Domestic System had outlived its usefulness by the late 1700s.

The Future?The Future?The Future?The Future?

•With a growing population that needed feeding and clothing, new methods of pro-duction were needed to meet these in-creased demands. •This would lead to the crea-tion of new factories, large and deep coal mines, and huge ship building ports. It would also lead to the growth of industrial cities, along with all the problems they were to bring. •The Industrial Revolution began as a revo-lution in the way textiles were produced, but it would yield unforeseen changes in other industries, in society, economics, poli-tics and culture.

Advantages/DisadvantagesAdvantages/DisadvantagesAdvantages/DisadvantagesAdvantages/Disadvantages

•The advantages of the Domestic System were humanitarian in nature. People worked at home in a decent environment, they set their own hours, took lunch and breaks when necessary, and could look after their chil-dren while working. •The disadvantages of the Domestic System were primarily economic in nature. The pro-cess of making textiles was both slow and inefficient. Time was lost as materials were transported from cottage to cottage for each stage of textile creation. •As New World goods were imported to Britain, and as the Agricultural Revolution improved nutrition, the population of Brit-ain expanded dramatically. These people needed clothes, and the Domestic System needed to be improved or changed to ac-commodate demand.

The Factory System SLMS/10

InventionsInventionsInventionsInventions

•New inventions led to the development of the “Factory System”, and often one inven-tion led to the creation of another. •The Flying Shuttle Flying Shuttle Flying Shuttle Flying Shuttle by John Kay wove cloth faster, and this created an in-creased demand for thread. •James Hargreaves then cre-ated the Spinning JennySpinning JennySpinning JennySpinning Jenny, and Richard Arkwright created the Water Frame Water Frame Water Frame Water Frame to spin thread much faster. The water frame used water to power it, and most early factories needed to be located close to sources of running water. •Edmund Cartwright created the Power Power Power Power Loom Loom Loom Loom -- a fully mechanized way of making cloth. This was a large, dangerous machine that was powered by the steam engine. •The power loom led to an increased de-mand for raw cotton and the creation of the Cotton Gin Cotton Gin Cotton Gin Cotton Gin by Eli Whitney.

SweatshopsSweatshopsSweatshopsSweatshops

•Many textile factories were given the nickname “sweatshops” because of the hot and sweaty environment maintained within, and because the labor was “sweated” out of the workers. •The temperatures inside of textile mills were kept warm and humid in order to prevent the cotton threads from breaking. •The air of a textile factory was filled with cotton fibers, and often created lung diseases in the workers. Eye inflammations, tuberculosis, deafness and mouth cancers were not uncommon in factory laborers. •Early factories had no safety features on machines. It was not difficult to get fingers, hands, arms, hair, clothes or feet caught in the machines. Such incidents resulted in disability, disfigurement and death.

Child LaborChild LaborChild LaborChild Labor

•Child labor was prized for several reasons — children were cheaper to employ, and they were small. Their hands and bodies fit into small spaces. Thus they swept under the machines, and changed the bobbins of thread when empty. These tasks required the quick, ‘nimble’ hands of children. •Children as young as 5 or 6 worked full 12 hour days. •Children were often permanently disfigured or disabled from factory work. This was often not not not not the result of accidental injury, but rather was the result of the years of bending or standing or crouching.

The Work DayThe Work DayThe Work DayThe Work Day

•The work day was long — 12 to 14 hours, six days a week, with limited breaks for meals. •Everything was now governed by the clock, and not by the rhythms of life, as agricultural life had been. Time was now the master of work patterns, not nature. •The work in the factory was boring and repetitive, leading the worker to feel like a machine — de-humanized. •There was no disability, and there were no sick days. If a worker could not work, for whatever reason, he was fired. There was a surplus of unemployed people waiting to take any job. Physically disabled workers often ended up begging in the streets.

Mine, Forge & Rail SLMS/10

The Second Industrial RevolutionThe Second Industrial RevolutionThe Second Industrial RevolutionThe Second Industrial Revolution

•There were actually two Industrial Revolu-tions. The first one involved the textile in-dustry, the second one occurred about 50 years later. It focused on three new industries — coal minescoal minescoal minescoal mines, steel mills steel mills steel mills steel mills and new transportation in the form of the railroadrailroadrailroadrailroad. •The textile revolution had a profound social and economic impact, but the second revo-lution’s impact was even more extensive.

Black GoldBlack GoldBlack GoldBlack Gold

•The mining of coal became an es-sential industry in Britain for sev-eral reasons. •First: First: First: First: The development of the steam engine. Steam engines were powered by coal, and were used to power everything else — facto-ry machines, water pumps, and transporta-tion devices. •Second: Second: Second: Second: Coal could be heated to high tem-peratures — high enough to melt iron ore and create steel. As steel became a more and more important commodity, coal in-creased in importance as well. •Third: Third: Third: Third: Coal was plentiful in England (a geo-graphic gift!), and that made it pretty cheap. It was not just used for the above reasons, but also for heating homes and apartment buildings.

Mine and ForgeMine and ForgeMine and ForgeMine and Forge

•Coal mining was extremely dan-gerous. Flooding in mines was common, as were explosions (from ignited natural gas) and cave ins (or shaft collapse). •Children (as young as 5!) and women were often employed in the mines to carry baskets of coal to the surface. •The demand for coal skyrocketed in the mid-1800s with the development of the Besse-Besse-Besse-Besse-mer process mer process mer process mer process of making steel. The Bessemer process created high quality steel in about 30 minutes. It was 85% cheaper ! •England also had large naturally occurring deposits of iron ore. This iron ore was also mined and then heated (using coal) to high enough temperatures to melt it. The Bessemer process removed the impuri-ties, and steel was poured into molds. •Production of steel created a secondary revolution in building and transportation. Steel was stronger and more flexible than iron. It was used for train rails and for gird-ers, allowing buildings and bridges to soar to new heights, and rails to cross the nation.

TransportationTransportationTransportationTransportation

•The steam engine coupled with cheap steel created a revolution in transportation. •George Stephenson built The Rocket The Rocket The Rocket The Rocket in 1829 -- an early locomotive using a steam engine that reached speeds of 29 mph! These steam engines were powered by coal which also added to the demands placed on mines. •It was cheap steel, however, that allowed train tracks to criss-cross the continent. As tracks were laid, transportation times were cut by 75%, and costs plummeted. •Most importantly, the cost of transporting raw materials and finished products de-clined. Factories no longer needed to be lo-cated close to canals or rivers for purposes of transportation, railways ran everywhere.

Capitalism SLMS/10

Adam SmithAdam SmithAdam SmithAdam Smith

•Adam Smith Adam Smith Adam Smith Adam Smith was a professor of economics at Scotland’s Glasgow University. His work, Wealth of Nations (1776) is considered the first work of modern economics. •As a figure of the Enlight-enment, Smith looked for natural laws -- in this case, natural laws that governed economies. His work became the basis of capitalism.

Three Natural Economic LawsThree Natural Economic LawsThree Natural Economic LawsThree Natural Economic Laws

•The first was the Law of Supply and De-Law of Supply and De-Law of Supply and De-Law of Supply and De-mandmandmandmand. Smith believed that supply and de-mand worked together to set prices. •He argued that if demand were high, and if supply was limited, then the price would go up. Likewise, if there were a large supply, and limited demand, the price would go down. •Ebay provides a good example of the law of supply and demand. When a product is rare or hard to get, the price is often very high. When products are common, the price is low. •The second was the Law of CompetitionLaw of CompetitionLaw of CompetitionLaw of Competition. Smith believed that the competition to cre-ate products yielded a better quality and a cheaper priced product for consumers. •If there were no competition in the creation of a specific product, there would be no rea-son to focus on creating a quality product. Price could remain high, regardless of quali-ty, because there would be no substitutes. The one company creating the product would have a monopoly and could charge whatever they wanted. •The third was the Law of SelfLaw of SelfLaw of SelfLaw of Self----InterestInterestInterestInterest. This is also known as “profit mo-tive”, and it suggests that people act in their own finan-cial best interest. •Basically, people start their own businesses because they seek profits for themselves. They develop businesses to meet a need (or demand) for a product in the economy. This self-interest ensured that there would be ample competition in the market place.

Aspects of CapitalismAspects of CapitalismAspects of CapitalismAspects of Capitalism

•A capitalist economy is known as a free market economy because private citizens own the Means of Production Means of Production Means of Production Means of Production (businesses, agriculture, transportation, communication), and compete for profits without restriction. •Smith actually advocated a LaissezLaissezLaissezLaissez----faire faire faire faire capitalist system. Laissez-faire was the idea that government should not interfere with the economy. He argued that the three nat-ural laws acted as a sort of invisible hand, guiding the economy. It was unnecessary for government to either aid or hamper businesses. •A capitalist economy typically yields a huge number of products and a wide variety of prices. It also is very consumer-oriented, or focused on the needs of the consumer. •It should be noted that completely unregu-lated capitalism (laissez-faire) creates terri-ble greed, selfishness and abuse. It was this unregulated capitalism that led to many of the labor abuses early in the Industrial Rev-olution. Humanity is at core, selfish.

Communism SLMS/10

The Communist ManifestoThe Communist ManifestoThe Communist ManifestoThe Communist Manifesto

•Karl Marx co-authored The Com-munist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels. Both men were German, and Engels’ father owned a textile factory where he observed the abuses of industrialization first hand. •The Communist Manifesto provided the ba-sis of Marxism -- the philosophy behind communism.

Marxism: The TheoryMarxism: The TheoryMarxism: The TheoryMarxism: The Theory

•Marxism is the philosophical basis of com-munism -- the theory, so to speak. •Marx believed there were two classes of people in industrial society -- the HAVES and the HAVE-NOTS. The HAVES were the bourgeoisie or owners, the ones who be-came rich off of other people’s labor. The HAVE-NOTS were the proletariat or work-ers who did the labor but received little in return. •According to Marx, there would be a world-wide revo-lution, and the bourgeoisie will be overthrown. The workers would seize control of all the facto-ries and other means of production. •Workers would own things “collectively”, or together. There would be no private proper-ty & no private ownership. Private owner-ship created differences and jealousies. •People would be “paid” according to their needs — not their abilities. So the trash col-lector with 10 kids would be paid more than the single doctor because his needs were greater. •Everyone would be of the same class & would have the same money, so crime & conflict would disappear. Marx be-lieved crime was caused by the jealousy and frustration that was created by private ownership (some people owned things, and some people didn’t). This also created class conflict. True Marxism is classless. •Government, along with the rest of society, would be run by the people — the proletari-at. The government would exist to meet the needs of the proletariat, and not the needs of business.

Communism: The RealityCommunism: The RealityCommunism: The RealityCommunism: The Reality

•Communism is the political system that was put in place in the name of Marxism. It doesn’t really resemble the theory very much at all. •Communist societies societies societies societies were not “classless”, but had an upper class of the ruling elite, and then the rest of everyone. Members of the Communist Party who ran the government became the upper class. •Communist governments governments governments governments were usually harsh & repressive and run by a dictator with a small group of ruling elite. •EconomicallyEconomicallyEconomicallyEconomically, the government owned and controlled of all of the Means of ProductionMeans of ProductionMeans of ProductionMeans of Production. They set the prices of goods, and decided the quantity of goods produced. There was no competition. This is known as a Command EconomyCommand EconomyCommand EconomyCommand Economy, since the gov-ernment commands all aspects of it. •There are philosophical problems philosophical problems philosophical problems philosophical problems in Marxism — namely the fact that it ignores the human need for incentives. If people were paid according to their need, what was the incentive to spend 8-10 extra years in school to become a doctor when you could get the same money as a trash collector?

Urbanization SLMS/10

UrbanizationUrbanizationUrbanizationUrbanization

•With the growth of factories came the con-sequential growth of Industrial cities. This growth of cities was known as urbanization. •Although urban centers had many amenities that were not available in rural areas, and although they tended to be a cultural melting pot, they had a hideous dark side.

Living ConditionsLiving ConditionsLiving ConditionsLiving Conditions

•Factories in cities like Manchester were so successful and grew so rapidly that people flocked to the area to get jobs. The cities grew fast, and were unprepared for the sud-den influx of population. •Builders were contracted to create tene-ments (cheap apartment buildings) as fast as possible. Profit Profit Profit Profit was the only motive, and builders used the cheapest materials and building tech-niques possible. Apartment buildings were unsafe and unhealthy. •Cheap apartments Cheap apartments Cheap apartments Cheap apartments were built with wood, and fire was a serious danger. Often two families shared a one room apartment (this might mean upwards of 10 people!) •Diseases Diseases Diseases Diseases lurked everywhere in such conditions TB (Tuberculosis), Cholera, Typhoid & Typhus were easily spread. •Bathroom facilities Bathroom facilities Bathroom facilities Bathroom facilities were limited and had no running water — they were merely cess pools (sewage pits).

Reform?Reform?Reform?Reform?

•Living conditions took a long time to im-prove, but eventually, they did, as laws were passed regulating the quality of buildings constructed and regulating conditions inside apartments. •By 1870, governments recog-nized the connection between bacteria & disease, and took measures to effectively dispose of sewage. •A final cultural note about urbanization: traditional values tend to weaken in urban areas. As people are exposed to new ideas they begin to modify parts of their beliefs.

PollutantsPollutantsPollutantsPollutants

•Factories belched coal smoke into the air, causing a black haze to hang over cities. Sewage was emptied into local rivers, despite the fact that rivers were the primary source of drinking water for cities. •People did not understand the connection between bacteria and disease until 1864, therefore diseases were spread through contaminated water and unclean conditions everywhere. •Cholera was a disease spread by contaminated water. It creates severe gastrointestinal symptoms in the form of severe diarrhea. People frequently die of dehydration or of shock resulting from loss of fluid and a drop in blood pressure. More than 22,000 people died of cholera in London between 1830 and 1850. •TB (Tuberculosis) was caused by a bacterium. It created horrible coughing spells in which the victim frequently coughed up blood. It also caused a general wasting away of the body. TB was responsible for nearly 1/3 of all deaths in Britain between 1800 and 1850.