Industrialisation


Facts

I Historical development

In the middle ages: agriculture overwhelmingly dominant
17th century: England leader in textile production, extensive trade with colonies
Economy based on slavery
Increasing number of manufactories
18th century: Series of technological advantages (steam engine by Newcomen, “Spinning Jenny” by Hargreaves, new technologies in iron industry by Corte, mechanical loom by Cartwright) More efficient at producing goods
Industrial Revolution (hard working conditions)
Increase of factories
Continued technological progress until today (car, computer, internet etc.)


II Social changes

Development from agricultural worker to dependent employee
Progressive urbanization
Formation of service-related jobs in offices
Development: agricultural sector industrial sector service sector
Social mobility independent from social background
Place of work place and domicile separated
Division of labour no identification with the end product
Labour Movement Creation of trade unions and “Independent Labour Party”
Creation of social insurances as a result of miserable working conditions

Comments

1.
Cars, mobile phones, computers, we use these technological things in our daily lives. They help us to move from one point to another or to communicate. But there are also negative aspects of this technological progress. In the following text, I want to consider whether the industrialisation was really good for people or not.
First of all, one could say that the situation of the employee became worse because now, workers can be substituted by machines. Furthermore, there is a great pressure from foreign competitors caused by the international division of labour.
Some people complain also about the disappearance of the agricultural sector in industrialized countries. The division of labour caused besides that another negative aspect. The employee doesn’t produce the whole product, but only a small part of it and as a result of this the identification with the final product and the motivation is missing.
On the other hand, one could argue that the industrialisation and the bad working conditions in former times brought good institutions like trade unions and social insurances. Another positive aspect is the social mobility. People now have career prospects because of their skills and not because of their social background. Furthermore the technological products help us to produce in a more efficient way. This is also an advantage against the competitors in non-industrialized countries. Besides, the technological progress helps people a lot. For example new inventions in medicine help people to survive and other inventions help to move easier, to produce in a better way or to communicate.
So, in general, I think that the industrialisation has more positive than negative aspects, because it makes many things easier. But on the other hand one should take care, that human beings are still more important than machines.

Jens Schreiber

2.

The industrialisation has improved the economic abilities of all countries, which have experienced this phenomenon, but has it also improved the living comfort of the people?


At the beginning of the process many entrepreneurs had wanted profit maximization and set therefore very bad working conditions. There were neither health standards nor protection appliances at the place of work. The labourers had to work 18 hours a day and sometimes even had to sleep at the factories, what guarantees a fluently process of work. Because of the very low payments the labourers got from their employer, their families wasn’t able to effort apartments of sufficing space, so they must live very close together, this leads to urbanization. Additionally they needed extra money to survive, so all parts of the families had to work. All workers had to fear of losing his job because at that time it was allowed to fire an employee without a reason and because there weren’t any social insurances this was a catastrophe for them. The substitution of workplaces through machines accelerated this negative development.
On the other hand it was the birth hour of our modern society. The economy was no longer concentrated on agriculture and the industrial sector developed very fast. This led to a division of place of work and the own house. Now the family wasn’t working together on the farms, but all on their own in the factories. The social rank, was no longer dependent on birth now, social mobility was born. The bad social conditions led to the foundation of labourer movements, which were the progenitors of the modern trade unions. Their fight for better conditions was in the long run a big success and made the good working conditions and social insurances of today possible. The long term effects of this development included also the improvement of technology which made modern innovations like car or computer possible and is an important part of the wealth of our current society.

All things considered it is to say, that on the one hand the industrialisation has improved our today’s life by being the connection between the agricultural and the service-related economy, but on the other hand was no or only a very little improvement to the agricultural society at the beginning, especially during the industrial revolution.

Manuel Bross