How British Standard Of Life Changed During The Period 1760-1840

How can poverty and the standard of living be measured? Briefly discuss how the British standard of living changed during the period 1760-1840.

The Industrial Revolution spanned almost seventy years and marked the beginning of a new era for global production methods and manufacturing processes. There can be no doubt that the Industrial Revolution dynamically improved the power of Britain’s economy. But what changes, if any, did the people of Britain experience in their overall welfare? How we choose to measure standards of living is the overriding factor that pervades throughout this debate. Pessimists argue that standards of living decline during the industrial revolution, as indeed Feinstein does in ‘The Journal Of Economic History’, while

It is difficult to tell if these hours were just typical of Britain in general up to this time period or if they were first brought about by expansion of industry since any data we have of the time before the eighteenth century is obscure at best. Despite these issues in the data there is some agreement that the working hours for males of prime working age between 1750 and 1835 increased, by between 20 and 35 percent (Freudenberger and Cummins 1976). Not only does this reflect a negative standard of living but if longer hours were the only contributing factor to larger wage rises then it becomes difficult to argue that the lifestyle of the population benefitted as a result of this. Child labour is an important aspect of the industrial revolution and it often had a larger impact on welfare than just the short term implications. It is true that child labour puts less strain on the main male earner in the house and will bring in a larger level of disposable income there is strong evidence attributing dwindling future earning potential in males to child labour, even in those who were not injured or maimed whilst working as children. The labour conditions for children were also considerably less hygienic and safe with the vast majority operating in enclosed spaces amid large machinery that posed danger to their lives. In 1812 the Felling Colliery disaster saw 81 fatalities (records are incomplete), Figure 5 gives details of the ages of some workers and the numbers killed in the disaster. What is most noticeable is that the youngest recorded age of a fatality is 8 years old and over half of workers killed had an average age of 17 or lower, demonstrating the extent to which children were