Chapter 29

The Making of Industrial Society

1

Overview: The Industrial Revolution

Energy: coal and steam replace wind, water, and human and animal labor

Organization: factories over cottage industries Urbanization: rural agriculture declines, urban

manufacturing increases Transportation: trains and automobiles replace

animals and watercraft/canals

2

Overview: Creation of New Classes

Emerging Middle Class: “white-collar” clerks and managers in new industrial enterprises

Urban proletariat: laborers increasingly unskilled by mechanization of production

Shift in political power: from aristocratic landholders to new industrial capitalists

Industrialization and the Social Imagination: sparks ideas for new political systems, especially socialist/Marxist ones

3

Overview: Unexpected Costs of the Industrial Revolution

Genesis of an environmental catastrophe Intellectual underpinnings: faith in human domination

over natural resources Unforeseen Consequences: Toxic waste, pollution, and

occupational hazards created by industrial processes. Social ills

Landless proletariat leads to creation of slums Migrating workforces lead lives of instability Increase in crime

4

Genesis of the Industrial Revolution

Great Britain in the 1780s: the birthplace of industrial production

Followed an agricultural revolution Food surplus Increase in disposable income Population increase

Market for manufactured goods increases Labor supply increases, making it cheaper

5

British Advantages

Natural resources Plentiful coal and iron ore deposits

Ease of transportation Small, compact country Goods easily transported via river and canal systems

Colonies Raw goods imported from colonies Colonies provide market for manufactured goods,

especially machine-made textiles

6

Cotton-Producing Technology

Flying shuttle (1733) invented by

machinist John Kay Sped up weaving output Stimulated demand for thread

The “mule” (1779) invented by

Samuel Crompton Could produce 100 times more

thread than a manual wheel

7

Cotton-Producing Technology

Power loom (1785) invented by Edmund Cartwright: replaces skilled artisans Supplanted hand weavers in cotton industry by 1820s

8

Steam Power

Steam Engine James Watt (1736-1819): Instrument-maker

who experimented with steam power while working at the University of Glasgow. Earlier Newcomen engine, invented in 1712, was used to power pumps for removing water from mines. Watt’s engine, invented in 1765, was far more compact and efficient.

Coal-fired engine that pushed a piston, which in turn turned a wheel; the rotary design had multiple applications “Horsepower” term to describe output of Watt’s engines; did

the work of many horses Especially prominent in textile industry by 1800

9

Iron and Steel

By 1709, British smelters begin to use coke Coke is carbonized coal, baked in an oven to burn

away impurities, leaving only pure coal called “coke” Iron production skyrockets

Bessemer converter is invented (1856) by Henry Bessemer Refined blast furnace makes production of steel faster and cheaper; it removes impurities witha blast of air

10

Transportation Railroads

George Stephenson (1781-1848) creates the first steam-powered locomotive in 1815.

Initially used to haul coal from mines. Stephenson’s Rocket

(1829) achieves 28 mph in a competition for the new Liverpool & Manchester Railway.

11

Transportation Steamboats: First commercially

successful steamboat launched by Robert Fulton in 1807, plying a route between NYC and Albany (used a steam engine smuggled out of Great Britain).

Dense transportation networks developed 13,000 miles of railroads laid between 1830 and 1870

Rapid and inexpensive transportation encouraged industrialization in areas previously considered too distant from major markets.

12

The Factory System

“Putting-out” system used in early modern era: used in production of clothing, shoemaking, small firearms, etc.

Subcontracted individuals work at home, employers avoid wage restrictions of guilds

Rising prices cause factories to replace both guilds and putting-out system Machines too large and expensive for home use Large buildings could house specialized laborers Urbanization guarantees supply of cheap unskilled labor

13

Working Conditions

Dramatic shift from rural work rhythms Six days a week, fourteen hours a day Immediate supervision, punishments “Luddite” protest against machines

break out from 1811 to 1816 Name from legend about boy named Ludlam who broke a

knitting frame Leader called “King Lud” Were handloom weavers and artisans who had been replaced by

machines Masked Luddites destroy machinery, enjoyed popular support Fourteen Luddites hung in 1813, movement peters out “Sabotage”: Dutch wooden shoe called a “sabot” wedged into gears.

14

Luddites smashing a power loom in 1812

Working Conditions

15

Notice announcing a reward for turning over Luddites who smashed textile-weaving machines in Nottingham in 1812

Spread of Industrialization

Western Europe Spread to Germany, Belgium, France by mid-1800s French revolution and Napoleonic wars delay

industrialization on the Continent, but also set stage for industrialization Abolishes internal trade barriers Dismantles guilds

After 1871, Bismarck pushes for state sponsorship of rapid industrialization in Germany, and the nation accomplished this quickly

16

Industrial Europe ca. 1850

17

Industrialization in North America

First New England water-powered textile mill established in 1793 in Rhode Island by Samuel Slater

Industry develops on a wider scale in New England in the 1820s with cotton mills

By the 1870s, heavy iron and steel industries emerges in Pennsylvania and Alabama.

By 1900, the U.S. an economic powerhouse,with industrialization spilling over into Canada.

Massive railroad construction stimulates industry: steel for rails and bridges, telegraph lines for communication, etc.

18

Mass Production: U.S. Contributions

Eli Whitney (U.S., 1765-1825) invents cotton gin (1793), also technique of using machine tools to make interchangeable parts for firearms

Mass production becomes a hallmark of industrial societies

19

Cotton gin

Eli Whitney in 1822

Mass Production: U.S. Contributions

Henry Ford, 1913, develops assembly line approach Complete automobile chassis every 93 minutes Previously: 728 minutes Price of a Ford Model T

drops from $850 in 1909 to $440 in 1915

20

Ford Model T assemblyline in Detroit in 1913

Big Business

No Small Entrepreneurs: Large factories require a huge amount of start-up capital

Corporations formed to share risk and maximize profits

Britain and France laid the legal foundations for modern corporation in 1850-1860s; the British Limited Liability Act of 1855 was particularly important

21

Monopolies, Trusts, and Cartels Large corporations form associations to drive out competition, keep

prices high Cartel: different companies or countries that come together to

control the price of one commodity Trust: Member organizations controlled by a board of trustees that

controls prices Monopoly: One individual or company that controls on commodity

or service Vertical Integration: John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil controls

almost all oil drilling, processing, refining, marketing in U.S. Horizontal Integration: German firm IG Farben controls 90 percent

of world chemical production through merging with and buying other companies that do the same thing

Governments often slow to break up or regulate monopolies

22

Monopolies, Trusts, and Cartels

23

This 1904 political cartoon depicts Rockefeller’s Standard Oil as an octopus with its tentacles around Capitol Hill, a New York banker, a state house, and one reaching for the White House.

Industrial Demographics

Technological Innovation “American System”: standardized parts for everything

from revolvers to sewing machines Cheaper Food: Improved agricultural tools and better

transportation lowers prices Cheap Manufactured Goods

Textiles: Cheap and washable cotton clothes affordable for all but the desperately poor.

Housewares: Furniture, porcelain, cabinets, and decorative objects far cheaper than in the past.

24

Population Growth (millions)

25

The Demographic Transition

Industrialization results in marked decline of both fertility and mortality Better diets Improved disease control

English scientists Edmund Jenner (1749-1823) develops the smallpox vaccine (1797); cowpox not deadly, but provides immunity to smallpox

Declining fertility Less need to have bigger families in industrial societies: less

workers needed and more children survive

26

Contraception

Ancient and medieval methods: depositories or potions to induce miscarriage pose health risks

Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) predicts overpopulation crisis, advocates “moral restraint”

Condom first efficient means of contraception without negative side effects Made from animal intestines in seventeenth century,

latex in nineteenth century

27

The Urban Environment

Urbanization proceeds dramatically 1800: only 20 percent of Britons live in towns with population

over 10,000 1900: 75 percent of Britons live in such places

Intensified industrial pollution: fossil fuels like coal befoul air and water with particulates, makes breathing difficult

City centers become overcrowded, unsanitary: outbreaks of cholera, typhus, tuberculosis, and dysentery.

28

Transcontinental Migrations

Nineteenth to early twentieth century, rapid population growth drives Europeans to Americas 50 million cross Atlantic Britons to avoid urban slums, Irish to avoid potato

famines of 1840s, Jews to escape pogroms under the tsarist regime in Eastern Europe

United States is favored destination, but some go elsewhere: Argentina, Canada, Australia, etc.

29

New Social Classes

Economic factors result in decline of slavery Capitalist wealth brings new status to non-aristocratic

families New urban classes of professionals Blue-collar factory workers Urban environment also creates new types of diversions

Sporting events: European soccer and American baseball Leisure activities: bars and pubs, gambling, cockfighting and

dogfighting

30

Women at Home and Work Agricultural and cottage industry work involved women:

within the domestic sphere Role of men as prime breadwinners: Middle-class women

supposed to remain in private/domestic sphere. Poor women become cheap labor: could be paid less than

men. Double burden: Poorer women expected to maintain

home as well as work since men’s wage can’t support family Women often work in domestic service

Child labor: Women would often take children to work and have them work due to lack of daycare facilities

31

Child Labor Why Child Workers? Easily exploited, abused, and

controlled Child Labor Laws in Britain• Cotton Factories Act in 1819: Made 9 years the minimum age to work, and

limit of 12 hour workday for kids.• Regulation Act in 1833: Funds inspectors to enforce laws• Ten Hours Bill of 1847: Limits workday for women and children

Moral concerns gradually remove children from labor pool

Need for educated workforce: Education of children from 5 to 10 years old becomes mandatory in England in 1881.

32

The Socialist Challenge

Socialism first used in context of utopian socialists Charles Fourier (1772-1837) and Robert Owen (1771-1858)

Opposed destructive competition of market system Attempted to create small model communities that would

serve as inspiration for larger social units Fourier’s “phalanx” was a unit of about 1,600 people

working harmoniously and for mutual benefit in a structure resembling the “grand hotels” of the era.

Owen was a Welsh reformer who founded utopian communities in Scotland and the United States.

33

Charles Fourier

Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)

Two major classes in Marx’s analysis: Capitalists, who control means of production Proletariat, wageworkers who sell labor

Highlighted the exploitative nature of capitalist system: labor produces morevalue than the paid wage for it.

Religion: “opiate of the masses” Argued that capitalist would be overthrown in favor of a

“dictatorship of the proletariat” in a historical process that mirrored rise of the bourgeois class over the feudal lords

34

Social Reform and Trade Unions

Socialism had major impact on nineteenth-century reformers Addressed issues of medical insurance, unemployment

compensation, retirement benefits

Trade unions form for collective bargaining Strikes to address workers’ concerns Trade unions had major political influence in conservative

imperial Germany: merger of two workers’ parties creates the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany in 1875. Though outlawed, it gained strength.

35

Global Effects

Global division of labor Rural societies that produce raw materials Urban societies that produce manufactured goods

Uneven economic development Export dependency in Latin America, sub-Saharan

Africa, south and southeast Asia Low wages and small domestic markets for

manufactured goods Economies reliant on one or two export commodities

36