Spielvogels: The Early Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial revolution started in Britain around 1750 and by 1850 it would make Great Britain the wealthiest nation in the world. The revolution spread both to other European countries and the New World. Germany and United States would surpass Britain in the next fifty years. What was the effect of The Early Industrial Revolution on the working class? Spielvogels´ text “The Foundry and Engineering Works of the Royal Overseas Trading Company Factory Rule” is from a factory in Berlin, 1844. It shows a set of rules that were to be strictly followed by workers for fundamental success. The set of rules tells us how a day in the worker's life in the factory would have been. The day starts early at 6am, and they only

The overseers and owners had created a fear mentality towards the workers. After a while the workers got tired of the bad conditions and low salaries that they started to organize labor organizations, to gain decent wages and working conditions. As we know, the industrial revolution started in Great Britain, as Britain had the highest standard of living and also a rapidly growing population. The population wanted to seek out new innovations and new ways to produce goods. This was the start of the industrial revolution, connected to the agricultural revolution in its innovation and scientific inventions that increased the rate at which factories produced goods, like the agricultural revolution doubled the amount of crops that were harvested each season.

Early in the revolution, factories became the symbol of the change in society and the largest effect on society was that people moved to the cities as they boomed. Urbanization became a major part in the social changes. The cities got overcrowded and the humanitarian conditions were bad, while the large growth in population made housing an issue. More wealthy people housed themselves in the suburbs around the big cities, leaving many cities relatively

There were also no securities or minimal wages. Cotton fabrics were hot, while the coal mines were also harsh. There were both children and women working, they often had lower salaries than the men. In 1821 half of the British population was under twenty years. Therefore, children were a huge supply of labor forces. The extensive use of women and children showed how cruel the early industrial revolution were to the people of Great Britain. The factory owners did all they could to squeeze out as much as possible in a short period of time in the fabrics, to meet the needs. The conditions eventually grew to become better with the years coming. Labor unions and better conditions made the workplace a better environment, while new innovations made life a little better for the workers. The working class was a mixture of groups in the first half of the nineteenth century. Thank to the workers they manage to establish better working conditions. Both when it came to wages and in the factories. Some times they even rebelled or went on strikes to make a point that they would let themselves be pushed by the fabric owners. The working class also controlled the press and they started to write about the life inside the factories. That created a pressure on the factories to improve the workers