The Industrial Revolution in Britain; history and workers

1. The Industrial Revolution in Britain; history and workers What, why and how

2. What was the industrial revolution? • Unprecedented change from an organic economy with accompanying growth limits to an inorganic one • Organic economy has limitations i.e. land used for agriculture cannot be used to provide housing, a craftsman’s output is limited • Inorganic economy does not have these limitations i.e. manufacturing, use of coal • Slow and cumulative in Britain; faster in countries that followed Britain

3. Why did it first occur in Britain? • Large free-trade area from 1707 • Deforestation but resource environment with abundant and easily accessible coal led to change • Politically freer (laissez-faire), rich intellectual climate and less bureaucracy: enabled group of inventors and entrepreneurs to thrive outside the establishment: Newcomen, Watt, Boulton • Fortuitous geography: close to sea, lots of rivers, largish population relative to size

4. Why did it first occur in Britain? • Necessity of providing for growing population (no longer a Malthusian check to growth) • London major financial centre • Cotton industry first outlet for inventions • Trade and dominance of British navy • Scientific advances starting with Francis Bacon

5. Newcomen‘s steam engine Steam engine first developed for mining industry 1712. Improved by James Watt in 1776 who was able to apply it to a variety of applications such as grinding, milling and weaving

6. Textile innovations • Textile innovations demonstrate cumulative nature of first part of the industrial revolution • flying shuttle 1733 was manual • spinning Jenny 1764 mechanized but helped home-based industries • water frame 1768 that started the move to factory-based production • mule (steam powered) 1780’s • power loom 1780’s but mechanized on a large scale in 1815

7. Flying shuttle and power loom

8. Further developments • Development of transport infrastructure to serve industries. Poor communications had kept Britain divided into self-contained regions • Canals were first: one horse could draw 80 times as much weight by pulling a barge • Roads: private, turnpike roads were first • Rail – indicative of second, faster phase of the industrial revolution and the most transformative. Established quickly 1830-50

9. The second phase – capitalism • Dominated by development of capital goods industries: coal, iron, steel • Limited liability 1855-56 led to rise in larger companies and greater risk tolerance • Production for overseas markets needed greater productivity • Simple ideas could no longer produce outstanding results • Division of labour: Smith’s pin, and button manufacture • Factory work became the norm • Urbanization and creation of the “working class”

10. “In such an age, the inequalities of life are apt to look less like calamities from the hand of heaven and more like injustices from the hand of man”. Hammond and Hammond. • 19th century brought permanent change to the entire population, not simply the working person • Growing middle and artisan class in new industries: journalism, engineering • Apogee Great Exhibition of 1851 • Beginnings of social reform • Start of municipal infrastructure, legislation

11. The working person and the industrial revolution • Life before the industrial revolution had not changed exponentially for centuries; change occurred but was not transformative • People produced sufficient for their own needs, with consumer goods made by local craftsmen. Way of life! • As the industrial revolution happened first in Britain the shift from an agrarian to an industrial society was without precedent and was largely unlegislated • Move from cottage industries/agriculture partly due to enclosures of land

12. Post 1789 upper class fear of Jacobinism and Radicalism – held back reform? • Lack of a social safety net: poor relief responsibility of parishes • Poor Law 1834 exacerbated problem • Loss of outdoor relief led to workhouses • Loss of independence and community • Depersonalization of the employment process – profit became sole basis of working relationship • Lack of advancement opportunities for many factory workers or miners

13. The textile industry • First inventions helped cottage industries but power loom destroyed home-based weaving • Women and children could no longer remain at home – forced into factories • The Luddites; weavers whose wages were being reduced due to mechanization • Weavers eventually starved out of their work • First employment legislation applied to cotton mills

14. What brought about change?

15. Need for educated workforce with industrialization • Smithian law became inadequate in the Victorian era • Previous repressive laws no longer sustainable – trade unions became legal 1830’s but still periodic repression • Earl of Shaftesbury; Owen; Place; Peel – awakening of social conscience • Rise in popular press, literacy, visibility of working conditions; • Dickens; Eliot; Disraeli; Wordsworth; Coleridge; Godwin and Wollstonecraft • Peterloo Massacre 1819 when public opinion gradually began to turn

16. Self-help • Second generation of industrialized workers • Alienation between the classes: no common interest and it became clear there was to be no alliance with employers • Workers started to educate themselves – corresponding societies, friendly societies, trades unions, cooperative movement • Reforms eventually carried out as concessions to pressure

17. How Britain fell behind/what’s next? • Easier for other countries to catch up once move made to capital goods industries and sources of growth became technological • Education in Britain liberal arts rather than science and engineering-based? • Victorian complacency • Rise of the US • Has the industrial revolution ever stopped?

18. Trends we see today • Move away from union representation; dilution of employment rights • Lowering of wages and race to the bottom for most • Maximization of profit at all costs • Government subsidizing low wages in some economies (UK) • Outsourcing • Child labour in developing world • Technological innovations resulting in job losses • Political and social power in the hands of a smaller number of individuals: oligarchy vs democracy?

20. Pre-Industrial Revolution SocialResponsibility Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

21. No Corporate Social Responsibility Decision-Making • A firm focuses on one thing and one thing only - its profit • This creates pressure to reduce costs by cutting costs internally • The owners, managers and labour make their own personal charity decisions. • Is this is more or less democratic than forcing the firm to give? Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

22. The Firm without Corporate Social Responsibility The Law & Governmental Administration The Nation, The Community Individual Owner Charity Profit Profit Charity Individual Manager Charity Customers Profit Profit Suppliers Profit Individual Labour Charity Charity Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015 The Firm

23. Corporate Social Responsibility Decision-Making • A firm giving to charity reduces its ability to reinvest, and its profit • This creates pressure to reduce costs by cutting costs internally – this essentially represents a tax on labour • Do the owners and / or the manager of the firm make the charity decisions? Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

24. The Firm with Corporate Social Responsibility The Law & Governmental Administration The Nation, The Community Individual Owner Charity Profit Profit Charity Individual Manager Customers Profit Charity Charity Profit Suppliers Profit Individual Labour Charity Charity Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015 The Firm

25. The Protestant Ethic Premise: • Stuff = Money • Money = Labour • Labour ≠ Free Time Therefore: • Stuff ≠ Free Time And: • Free Time ≠ Stuff Where does charity fit into this equation? Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

26. Self-Interest and Selfishness • “Fellow Feeling“ is crucial = sympathy • Bi-directional and inter-dependent sense of well-being • Self-interest = When you feel good, I feel good • The butcher takes care of his own self-interest, but because he is not selfish he takes care of his clientele • Not all human actions are selfishly motivated; but he understands that: • Altruistic actions are driven by a deep desire within the self; and not by reason alone • This applies to all individuals Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

27. Relationship Between the Individual and the Entity • Is business as an entity of men really different to the church, academia, military? • "Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.”Smith: The Wealth of Nations (Page 286) • What is the purpose the Church & Academia • To fund environmental studies? Homeless shelters? • What about negative eudæmonia Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

28. Relationship Between the Individual and the Entity • Structure of laws and administration limit all human endeavours: • Lag between innovation and legislation • Conversely creates a stable environment in which it can grow due to predictability of some facets – The Navigation Acts were in place for 200 years. Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

29. On Defense • Defense of the nation state is not just military in nature • More to do with “public interest” • Spending on the military nationally was good locally; and business spending on infrastructure was good for military and for business • Of course, it is too bad that periodically the military has to be used • Defense is dependent upon local capital • Surely, the more local the capital the better for a community • Boundary between public good and individual good Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

30. On the Nation • Local government and County government was about to be radically restructured; but largely ineffective • Closed communities all dependent upon a single business for profit • The Wentworth Estate • What is good for the nation is good for the community and vice versa Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

31. Post-Information RevolutionSocial Responsibility - An Alternative - Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

32. Smith gone wrong ……! • Since the late 1970s the American middle and working classes have fallen further and further behind economically because policy changes in government favor the rich and super-rich • Given little to no growth, skimming off some of the proceeds of growth to service the disadvantaged no longer works • 1% vs 99% Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

33. The Individual Richest • All together the 400 wealthiest Americans are worth $2.29 trillion - up $270 billion from a year ago: • Same as the gross domestic product of Brazil, a country of 200 million people.  • The average net worth of list members is $5.7 billion, $700 million more than last year and a record high. • Forbes 400 (2014) Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

34. …and there are the business hypocrites(and we can’t get enough of them …..) • Yoko Ono Net Worth - $500 million. Tweeted: "I love #OccupyWallStreet. As John said, "One hero cannot do it. Each one of us have to be heroes." And you are. Thank you. love, yoko." • Russell Simmons Net Worth - $325 million The founder of a high fee credit card company called UniRush Financial Services visited the protests with Kanye West  • George Clooney Net Worth - $160 million Says he also supports the movement against corporate greed, but admits he needs to educate himself more about the specifics. • Samuel L. Jackson Net Worth - $160 million While on “The View,” the 62-year-old Pulp Fiction star said: “I’m really glad when I look at those kids on Wall Street and I think, ‘Finally, someone got up and did something’. We used to be on the streets in the ’60s.” • Sean Penn Net Worth - $150 million Speaking on “Piers Morgan Tonight,” he says, "It resonates a great deal and in many ways. I applaud the spirit of what's happening now on Wall Street. I hope that increased organisation can come to it. • Jane Fonda - $120 million • Roseanne Barr Net Worth - $80 million Tweeted: "The working class of this country were destroyed by wall street as the middle class was encouraged 2 jeer at them & call them lazy" • Deepak Chopra Net Worth - $80 million • Kanye West Net Worth - $70 million Arrived to the protests in $1,000 jeans and a $300,000 car. • Alec Baldwin Net Worth - $65 million Also the spokesperson for Capital One credit card  Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

35. A Possible Solution: Predistribution • Don’t wait until the $$ have been earned and then distribute. • Distribute the earnings beforehand they land on a pay cheque. • Focus on the voiceless middle classes. • Engineer markets to create fairer outcomes from the beginning. Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

36. How to reinvigorate the centre-left? • Jacob Stewart Hacker: Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies and Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University • Written works on social policy, health care reform, and economic insecurity in the United States • Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Richer Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

37. The Precursor to Predistribution • James Meade: Nobel prize-winning economist, in his 1964 book Efficiency, Equality and the Ownership of Property • older and more radical approach to predistribution • called a "property-owning democracy" • Looks to fundamentally to change individuals' economic power within markets Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

38. Predistribution • Focus on the economic engine of the middle class • Fix the macro economy • Provide quality public services • Empower the workforce Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

39. Predistribution • Acknowledges that: • The state cannot do everything • Vital place for active governance in the 21st century economy • More than just softening the sharp edges of capitalism by creating a positive role for the state (contrary to Hayek’s thinking) Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

40. Assumptions: • Predistribution: • More on education and training to foster greater self-respect and economic agency • Predistribution: • Greater capital stake gives people the kind of independence that comes with being less in thrall to the vagaries of the labour market • Predistribution: • Encourages those with a more secure economic position (since they are freer) to refuse demeaning or badly paid jobs • this in turn bids-up wages and reduces inequality Martin Addison - LS812 - 30 March 2015

42. Environment and the Industrial Revolution how business, science, and religion led to the degradation of the planet

43. Pre-Industrial Revolution I – Attitudes II – Timber and CoalIII – Science IV – Agricultural Revolution V – Changes in European Culture Industrial Revolution I – Canals II – Industry/Air Quality III – Case Study – Alkali Acts 1863 Post-Industrial Revolution I – Sewage and Waste Disposal

44. Changing Image of Nature

45. Mazatlan Wetlands - Mexico Deforestation in Australia Highland Valley Copper – Logan Lake, BC

46. Domination or Stewardship? Greek: • Sacrifices to Greek gods to gain favour • Sacrifices or offerings were often given to ensure that the weather was in favour of the people • Poseidon for safe water passage • Demeter for the harvest • Hades for wealth (precious metals come from within the earth)

47. Domination or Stewardship? Christianity: Genesis 1:26-28 New International Version (NIV) 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a]and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 9:1-5 New International Version (NIV) Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

48. Pre-Industrial Revolution • Britain – subsistence agriculture • Early modern period = soil fertility maintained through crop and animal rotation • Woodlands are the source of fuel for the community • Each family farmed their own lot, but natural resources were shared • Medieval landlords did not strive to maximize their gains

49. Pre-Industrial Revolution • 1100/1200s – problem with the ownership of woodlots • Landowners want to sell the wood to the companies building the ships • Mature oak of 80-120 years was necessary for the hulls, and firs were used for the masts • Industries also reliant on timber • Housing • Soap • Glass • Iron/Copper refineries • Docks, bridges, barges, locks (canals) • Brewing industry • By the 1200s, there is a shortage of timber for fuel and coal is used instead.

50. Coal as fuel In Elizabethan times, the use of coal had created a major pollution problem – travelers when visiting the capital would have the smog greet them as their first visual The coal burned in the early modern period contained twice as much Sulphur as coal used today • By the 18th century, statues of Stuart kings were covered in soot • The production of English coal rose 1560 - 210,000 tons 1690 - 2,982,000 tons