It was a radical and irreversible change in economy and also in life(society lived in a different way). It took place in England from about 1760 to about 1840.
CAUSES OF THE 1st INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:-
Colonies: with the Tudor’s dynasty(with Elizabeth I) there were the first colonies(XVI° Century);
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Political stability: There was a Parliamentarian and Constitutional Monarchy;
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Locke, Hume, Bacon: they introduced empiricism, they developed the experimental method. Moreover, there was Royal Society;
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Puritan and Practical spirit: they are connected: there was Anglicans against Puritans;
The first Industrial Revolution,
in England brought:
- fraternity, freedom, equality;
- accidents in works(there’s no security);
- rebellion of workers.
The
situation in other European countries in this period:
France: there’s no industrial revolution because there were Catholics and there wasn’t political stability;
Italy: there’s no industrial revolution because there wasn’t a Calvinistic spirit, no love for profit, no political union, no political stability;
Spain: there was monarchy;
Germany: there was the Emperor with a lot of princes.
PHASES OF THE 1st INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:The preliminary step was the Cottage Economy: during the winter, women span and weaved. The 1st phase was a spontaneous development and it was convenient both for workers and for the organizer. The 1st factories in town born. Workers worked in the city, that gives a lot of well-paid works and it was the centre of social life. In fact, they wanted to live in London because it was comfortable and they didn’t want to live in countryside because it was too difficult. The organizer, in this way, could control workers and they spared the costs of transportations. The 2nd phase was a wave of migration from the countryside to the city. The are no enough work-districts, they have no houses, there was an overcrowding. People starved. In 1824 Trade Unions were founded: they were organizations of workers. In 1901 Labourist party born and the 2nd phase ended. Government hadn’t to intervene and when people protested, it repressed these people.
In this period, there were a lot of inventions, such as: the spinning Jenny, the mule(a textile machine, a mechanical weaver(loom). It was powered by mechanical gears), the flying shuttle, the mechanically powered loom and the steam engine.
INVENTIONS:Jethro Tull made the 1st sowing machine(the mechanical sower).
Benjamin Francklin invented the domestic stove to produce heat(there weren’t hearth), the lightning rod and the mile counter.
James Watt invented the steam engine(fundamental for textile industries, in the same room of workers(bad for health) and looms.
Cartridge invented spinning jenny(to spin cotton or wool).
PHILOSOPHERS, INDUSTRIALISTS & ECONOMISTS:Robert Owen was an industrialist, he built houses for workers, he lowered working hours, he built factories. He believe that “if a worker was better fed, he produced more”. It was a period of precarious fortune. In America he didn’t achieve success.
Thomas Malthus noted the demographic growth, that proceed with a geometrical rate while resources hadn’t this rate. He warned the world of the economy and he said that there were few resources for the population. He was the 1st economy and he was important because he was the 1st person who explain this problem. Industrialists wanted from government less taxes on importation, facilities and services to promote works.
Adam Smith put the basis for economic liberalism: the state hadn’t to intervene on wages and prices, which had to be fixed by the law of the market, with the laws of supply and demand. Moreover, he says that individual self-interest will lead to benefit for everyone.
Fonte: Pavi92
https://myenglish.blogfree.net/
