From Myles (not Zach): Britain's Industrial Advantages and The Factory System

Bains: Britain's Industrial Advantages and the Factory System

3 important resources for industry:
1. Water power: mills, cleaning, transportation, and chemical processes
2. Fuel (coal): steam engines and heat
3. Iron: for cheaper machinery
Lancashire is a successful town which has all of these
-transportation to the ocean, cannals to connect to inland resources, new railways

Enland's Advantages
1. Commercial position
2. Command of the seas
3. Temperate climate and hardy people
4. Political and economic freedom
5. Accumulation of Capital
6. Acceptance of experts of different religion from other countries
7. Wars in other countries gave England a head start

Cotton manufacturing
1. used to be in homes
2. New Machines required more room, powere and maintanance
3. Multiple steps in one place gave greater efficiency and control

Nicholas Cummins - The Famine in Skibbereen

Rob Edwards

Nicholas Cummins - “The Famine In Skibbereen”

• By the fall of 1846, the south and west of Ireland was in a horrible famine

• Skibbereen, a town the remote southwest, didn't have enough suitable people to form a relief committee, and without this committee it was ineligible for government support

• Public Works was the only employment, and it didn't pay enough to support one person, let alone a family

• Nicholas Cummins, a magistrate from Cork, visited this area and was horrified. He wrote to the Duke of Wellington and to The Times, and influential London newspaper.

• He describes one moment of his visit, when he went into an apparently deserted house to find 6 decrepit family members huddling in a corner, as pale and skinny as skeletons and barely hanging onto the last bit of life

• After running into this one family, in only a few minutes he was surrounded by at least 200 other people like these who looked like “phantoms” who were screaming with “demonaic yells”

• He also describes an instance where he was mobbed like this, and the clothes were nearly torn off of his body as he tried to escape the people clawing at him

• Walks into another house and finds a mother who had literally just given birth, but her only possession was a sack across her loins

• There are other horrible scenes like this that he describes, but the gist is that he is writing these letters with vivid descriptions of the horrors he saw in hopes of getting relief brought to these horribly unfortunate people

Malthus: On the Principle of Population

Population's Effect on Society

Malthus argues that because

1. food is necessary to the existence of man
2. passion between the sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state

the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man. He notes that

1. population, unchecked, grows at an exponential rate
2. subsistance increases at a linear rate

Since these two powers must be kept equal, a consistent check on population is implied.

Therefore, he concludes that the perfectibility of the mass of mankind is impossible.

Population's Effect on Human Happiness

Malthus states that the ultimate check to population appears to be a want of food, but the immediate checks check the population growth from day to day:

1. The preventive check covers the idea that a poor man who has a small amount of excess income does not have the reasoning ability to see that he may not be able to feed many more mouths with that small surplus, so the conditions are calculated to eliminate the surpluses among young families.
2. The positive check covers common diseases, epidemics, wars, plagues, famines, extreme poverty and severe labor that reduce the excess population from time to time.

Population and Poverty

Malthus argues that the poor are the cause of their own poverty and misery because they have five or six children when their wages of labor are hardly able to support two children.

Self-Help and Thrift

Thesis: Lack of government regulation and personal discipline is the best means to ensure societal growth and cure the social ills of society.

A. Self help is the best way to cure social ills

1. Self help is the root of all individual growth

2. When something is done for men, they have no stimulant to do it themselves- over government makes men helpless

3. Value in legislation causing advancement is overestimated

4. Evils of life only cease if the conditions are fixed

5. Greatest slave is the person who is the thrall of his own moral ignorance

B. Thrift destroys a man's productivity and therefore his grpwth

1. Men are free to find own position and be independent in their condition

2. many features such as idleness, thoughtlessness, vanity, etc must be overcome to employ means for worthy purposes

3. Savings of individuals composes the wealth of nations

4. Those who live only to self satisfy are the most unhappy of all

5. Man must work with his brain to be laboring- work with the arts

6. Large majority of men don't think of anything but the present

"On the Principle of Population" by Thomas R. Malthus

Population's Effects on Society:

• Two difficulties facing the perfectibility of man are that food is necessary to the existence of man and the passion between the sexes is and will remain necessary.
• These two natural laws will never cease
• Since these two laws exist, the population will be greater than the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man
• Population will always grow in a geometrical ratio while subsistence only increase in an arithmetical ratio
• The world must try to keep these two unequal powers equal

Population's Effects on Human Happiness:

• The different ratios of population and subsistence keep the population in check
• The scarcity of subsistence prematurely tend to weaken and destroy the human frame
• People should prevent having too many kids whom they cannot provide for
• Positive checks to population are diseases, wars, famine, extreme labor, extreme poverty, and bad nursing of children

Population and Poverty:

• When a man can barely afford to provide for two children and he has five children, he blames everybody else except himself for being in poverty
• People must take responsibility for the amount of children that they have

Factory Rules

[Perry pp. 136-138]

In order to achieve the rigorous discipline necessary for efficiency, factories imposed harsh rules on their workers. Some examples from a factory in Berlin:

Workers more than 2 minutes late will not work until the next break, and will lose the corresponding wages

Entry by any pathway except the main gate will result in a fine or dismissal

No worker may leave his station of work

Fines will be given to those caught smoking

Disobedience will be punished with dismissal

Every workman is obliged to report to his superiors any acts of dishonesty or embezzlement

Fines for not having a copy of the rules

Sadler Commission Report on Child Labor

I. testimony of Mr. Matthew Crabtree

a. Blanket manufacturer

b. Working since age 8

c. 14-16 hours a day

d. often beaten

II. Conditions of labor

a. Always tired, often beaten for fatigue

b. Factory work often results in poor moral especially in children

c. Immorality rampant in factory system

d. Children out of wedlock very common

Factory Rules - Industrial Revolution

• Emphasis on "good order and harmony"
• every man employed receives a copy of the following rules:

1. normal working day begins at 6 am and ends 7 pm (allowing a half hour for breakfast, dinner, and tea). Also 5 minutes before work begins a bell will ring, indicating for everyone under employment to move to their station. If you're not on time, the doors will be locked. If you are even 2 minutes late there will be wage deductions.
2. you are not allowed to work overtime or there will be wage deductions.
3. you may not leave before the end of the working day.
4. if you have repeated irregular arrival, you will be dismissed.
5. only enter and exit through the proper gateways
6. you may not leave your station of work unless it is for a reason pertaining to your work
7. you may not talk to fellow workers
8. no smoking in the work yard
9. every worker is responsible for cleaning their space. All tools must be kept in good condition
10. you may only perform your "natural functions" (using the restroom) in the appropriate places
11. once you complete a task, you must ask the foreman for another one immediately. You can never take over for someone else.
12. you must obey your overseers.
13. immediate dismissal is penalty for being drunk during work hours
14. untrue allegations against superiors will result in dismissal. the same punishment goes to those who let an error someone has made go unrecognized.
15. every workman is obligated to report acts of dishonesty, embezzlement, etc.
16. advances are granted only to older workers in exceptional circumstances. otherwise a worker will always get his fixed wage. if you miss work due to illness you will be paid accordingly.
17. a free copy of the rules is handed to every workman and whoever loses their copy and requires a new one shall be fined 2 and 1/2 silver pennies.

Cummins- The Famine in Skibbereen

Irish Potato Famine
-hundreds died during the winter of 1846 in Skibbereen
-Government policy not to send food if town doesn't have a relief commitee
-strict gov't adherence, no food was sent
-magistrate Nicholas Cummin visted the town, and published a letter to the Duke of Wellington in "The Times", the most influential paper in London
-The letter became of symbol of the disaster
-the people had been reduced to "living skeletons"
-all 200 surviving people were like this
-all had heavy fevers
-a home was opened to find to frozen men, each half eaten by rats
-seven men were huddled under the same rag trying to stay warm
-one man died, but was frozen to the others who were still alive

Report on Child Labor

Due to concerns on child labor, parliament, headed by Michael Thomas Sadler, investigated the condition of child employment in British factories. By gathering different testimonies of information, Sadler was able to get a true grip on the hardships of child labor.

The following was information gathered from Matthew Crabtree:

· He is a twenty two year of blanket manufacturer, employed since the age of eight

· He worked fourteen hours a day since the age of eight, at different occupations in the factory

· He received an hour off for lunch

· If Crabtree happened to be late, with a two mile walk from his house, he was most commonly beaten

· Some of the consequences from this strenuous work included common sickness, that often led to loss of appetite and vomiting, and a general fatigue almost always

· Not only was he working fourteen hours a day, but he was also on his feet running to and fro the whole time

· When a child is unable to keep going towards the late hours of the day due to fatigue, he is most commonly beaten to spur on work.

· Some common instruments for beating are a strap, a stick, and a roller

· Children, due to all of these factors, often become demoralized and oftentimes indecent

· The female workers, due to stress of work, very often have illegitimate children around the ages of sixteen and seventeen

· Sometimes the fathers of these children were grown men taking advantage of the young women

The Famine in Skibbereen

Nicholas Cummins
The Famine in Skibbereen

Nicholas Cummins writes a letter to the Duke of Wellington to express the horrific situation of famine in Ireland and the lack of relief they were receiving.

• South and West of Ireland was the suffering the worst from Famine.
o Poor soil barely fir for even potatoes and in desperate situation in fall of 1846
• Skibbereen, in remote southwest of Ireland even lacked suitable people to form the relief committee required to receive government support
o Public works were the only employment and did not pay enough to feed a family
o Two Protestant Clergymen confront Trevelyan in London and pleaded for food, but he was determined to adhere to government policy and no food was sent.
• Two weeks later Nicholas Cummins, a magistrate from Cork visits the area and reports his horrific findings
o He reported to authorities without success and writes letter to Duke of Wellington with a copy to The Times (the most influential newspaper in London)
o The letter was published on 24th of Dec. 1846 and Skibbebereen became a symbol of the famine disaster
o His letter received wide circulation in the U.S. in 1847 to raise money for Irish relief
• Descriptions of Skibbereen
o The people appeared as skeletons and ghastly figures
o People were found too weak to move those who had died next to them
o Their cloths were reduced to nothing but mere rags
o Families were found dead lying together
o The whole population was suffering from fever and starvation

Perry "Evictions" by Poulett Scrope

Thesis:
As a member of Parliament, Scrope recognized that the British government was harshly treating tenants in Ireland by evicting them from their lands

• Potato famine, ruined crops and inability of tenants to pay rent led to further evictions
• Life is essentially taken in Ireland by want and disease is engendered by want to where humans are deprived from a means of living
• What do the tenants do when a landlord releases all his tenants from his estate  they have no other refuge, so this action destroys their lives
o Mr. Gerrard razed an entire village in middle of fever and famine – 400 tenants now homeless and poor
o Marquis of Waterford did the same
o Mr. Clark and Mr. Carrick razed villages and were murdered as a result
• “Landlords consider themselves justified in consolidating their estates, and ejecting the numerous families of tenantry who have occupied under the old leases”
• These tenants are driven from land, on which they were “born and bred” and where they “take shelter”
• As a result, these tenants wander to towns and begin to beg to make a living
• Therefore, the ejectment of tenants essentially is a sentence of death because they had only learned how to maintain their families of that bit of land

"Britain's Industrial Advantages and The Factory System" by Edward Baines

Reasons for the success of Industrialism in Great Britain:

• Cheap and abundant supply of iron, water-power, and coal
• Great number of streams used for water-power andcanals which were used for inland navigation
• Abundance of well-situated ports such as Liverpool which were able to export and import goods easily
• Plentiful supply of timber which was used for building purposes
• Introduction of the railway added to the transportation of goods and raw materials
• Excellent commercial position- situated between north and south Europe and was enhanced by its command of the seas and security from invasion
• Ports had access to every quarter of the world
• A temperate climate and a hardy race of men contributed to promote industry
• Secure personal liberty and property promoted free enterprise and capitalism
• Surplus of capital promoted entreprenuerial spirit
• Tolerance of all people adds to work force
• The recent Napoleonic wars did not hinder manufacturing improvement and therefore England was left without a competitor

Adam Smith - The Division of Labor and The Wealth of Nations

Thesis: The division of labor was one of the most time-saving innovations of the Industrial Revolution.

I. Greatest Improvement in the Productivity of Labor: Division of Labor

a. Same number of people are capable of performing

b. Owing to three different circumstances

i. Increase of dexterity in every particular workman

ii. Saving of time commonly lost in passing from one species of work to another

iii. The invention of a great number of machines which facilitate and abridge labour

c. Example of Pin Making

Thesis: In Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, Smith argued that the key to economic prosperity was laissez faire economics, the theory that the government should intervene as little as possible in economic affairs.

I. Laissez faire – government should intervene as little as possible in economic affairs

a. Advocates liberation of economic production

II. Spot for national interest as well in his economic theories

a. Defense of Navigation Acts

III. In short, Smith believed that economic cooperation among nations could be a source of peace

Adam Smith: "The Division of Labor" and "The Wealth of Nations"

The Division of Labor:

• The division of labor is the greatest improvement to production.
• Three things contribute to increased work, a consequence of the division of labor: first, each workman has improved dexterity because he only has to perform a single task, second, the saving a time, and finally, the invention of machines that hasten the labor.
• Thanks to the division of labor, smaller numbers of workers can work faster and produce much more than before.

The Wealth of Nations:

• An individual seeking his own benefit will invest his capital in domestic industry instead of foreign industry. By doing this he not only helps himself, but also his homeland.
• No person can assume the responsibility of directing private people in their own capital, he could not be trusted.
• A system can neither promote itself and gain excess funds, or restrict itself and lose essential funds. If it were to do so, it would not grow, only slow down and not benefit anyone.
• The role of the sovereign is not to interfere with investments, but only to carry out three duties: first, to protect society from violence and invading countries, second, to protect individual members of the society from injustice caused by other members, and thirdly, to erect and maintain certain public works.